A new survey reports that most Silicon Valley startups pay their chief executives less than $50,000 a year.
The data, reported by the Next Web, comes from a Compass survey of 11,160 global startups who use the company's data tools. It found that in the Silicon Valley, 75 percent of founders pay themselves less than $75,000, while 66 percent pay less than $50,000. India has the lowest pay at $30,208 with Australia has a high of $72,363.
While it's not known if lower-paid CEOs are good or bad for a company, angel investor Peter Thiel seemed to believe a low-paid CEO meant a more successful startup, according to the Next Web.
“The CEO’s salary sets a cap for everyone else. If it is set at a high level, you end up burning a whole lot more money. It aligns his interest with the equity holders. But [beyond that], it goes to whether the mission of the company is to build something new or just collect paychecks.
The survey does say that when the startup has a mature product, salaries do rise to around $70,000 -- which means at least a decent apartment and car. But let's face it, founders and CEOs are looking for the big payout and that means either the initial public offering or selling to one of the big Silicon Valley (think Apple, Google or Facebook) companies for millions. If the product is a good one, either choice can make its founder at least a millionaire.