Startups offer equity, consulting companies don't. That would actually tend to favor startups as the equity they grant drives the "compensation" upwards despite it being monopoly money until the shares actually vest and assuming they're even worth printing at this point.
They are generally not treated as executable code written in English, but rather are interpreted taking into account the facts and circumstances.
If Tata has hundreds of employees, all making $80K and a $50K bonus, none earning the bonus due to poor individual performance, but all being retained by the company and sent on new client engagements (presumably due to acceptable performance).
In finance, this is often referred to as substance over form, but the same concept applies in other areas of civil law as well.
