Check Out The Ridiculously Low Salaries That Young Tech CEOs Are Paying Themselves

REUTERS/ Fred ProuserPeter Thiel

We often picture the stereotypical startup CEO awash in cash in their fancy apartment in Silicon Valley. After all, when you're a startup founder, you're responsible for setting your own salary. But in 2008, VC Peter Thiel said that the best predictor of a startup's success is low pay for the CEO.

Turns out, more CEOs might be heeding Thiel's advice than we would have thought, according to a bunch of data from benchmarking company Compass provided to The Next Web.

In Silicon Valley, 75% of founders pay themselves less than $75,000 per year and 66% pay themselves less than $50,000 per year, according to the data. Salaries also relate to the current monthly revenue of the startups: The less revenue a startup makes per month, the less founders are paying themselves.

It also relates to the ages of founder. Founders who are 20 or younger pay themselves about $35,000, while founders between 41 and 50 give themselves around a $60,500 salary. The 2012 median household income in the US was $51,000, so those young CEOs are keeping their budgets tight.

The data also showed that serial entrepreneurs pay themselves significantly more than first-timers. Founders on their first startup make about $42,000, while founders with two previous startups behind them give themselves around $57,000. CEO salaries rarely hit more than $50,000 a year until there are more than ten people on payroll.

For several interesting charts on this data, check out The Next Web.