Interesting data point. Thanks for sharing. I'm no longer in SF so may be out of touch with current salary gaps.

That said, this is makes sense to me. Google's stock options aren't making employees wealthy these days. Yet it's still a fantastic company and obviously compensates with salary. On the other hand, no startup that I know of can pay 3-400K salaries for 3-4 years exp.

Also it should be said that the type of work you likely do and the culture at a large public company will likely be very different from a small startup. Culture, ability to influence direction, large potential upside (though unlikely) are reasons people continue to pick startups despite lower salaries.