Even 0.5-1% is at the higher end if you join early. And 100K at a startup is probably for the well funded ones. If you join later even at 50 person startup, the

Even 0.5-1% is at the higher end if you join early. And 100K at a startup is probably for the well funded ones. If you join later even at 50 person startup, the equity goes down to 0.0015. Everyone believes their startup is the next FB. With that small of a percentage ownership, you'll only make money if it's a $1B exit. Otherwise all employees get screwed. Lost opportunity costs, lost physical/mental health but I guess gained good experience and scratch the startup itch. Honestly at this point, the VC's have fully gamed the system to work it in their favor and employees are commodities. If you hear any thing else it's a lie. Incase, you wanted to compare base wages at companies, I've created salarytalk.org to publish base wages at companies in USA based on jobtitle/location/state. While you don't have total compensation, adding 20-30% to base wage is often close enough. This data is from US department of labor for foregin labor, which is a significant part of the employee base, so the data is highly accurate.