equity, employmentAt the early stages of a company, when the company still cannot afford to pay salaries, people may join the company in exchange for equity. Such people may not be a founder, and not be a director.
Such a person would not receive a salary (just equity), and hence not have an employment contract. How is such a person called?
The default term would be partner. However, if you are offering equity without participation in the decision making of the company a more appropriate term would be limited partner or just contractor.
In any case, a contract is always advisable even if not called an employment contract. And all such contracts, founding documents, etc. should be reviewed by a lawyer.
As a side note, the government may consider anyone an employee, for tax purposes, if they are working exclusively for you with limited discretion in work assignment. In other words, even though you are not paying cash now, they may be taxed as an employee on future profits. Just a heads up.
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