Okay, this is a very interesting article with a high risk approach used by somebody who hasn't ever had to change jobs so comes from the point of view of somebody with a single data point. I'm not saying disregard it, just that...your mileage will vary. As an employer, I'd never ever play these games with a prospect.

As an employee, I've used a different approach (note: this is not intended to be reflected on the very strange environment of a startup, but on more established businesses)

When you start the job, ask for a salary that you'd be happy with, in fact give them $5-7 thousand dollar range with your ideal salary somewhere on that range (usually on the low end), and would stay happy with so long as it continued to rise at a reasonable percentage slightly higher than inflation. You also get information based on where they come in on your range.

The very first time you get a pay raise under that percentage or that doesn't keep up with inflation? Change jobs. If your pay raise isn't even keeping up with inflation, congratulations your reward for your last year's work is a de facto pay cut. That's what your employer thinks about you. Time to leave, period.

In one case I secured a better paying job in another part of the company, gave my intent to leave and was given a counter offer with a promotion and a double digit pay raise that beat where I was going. I told them that if I stayed, I would be committing to 12 more months, if my pay raise was again unacceptable I would leave. The next year the raise was below inflation, and I left for a much better job.

If the economy is good, give yourself a raise when changing jobs, treat it like a promotion, give yourself two years worth of pay raises for the new job when getting down to salary negotiations.

If you get promoted, expect at least two years worth of pay increase percentages. If you don't receive that, it's not a promotion, it's just more work for you. Never take-on additional responsibility without additional reward.

If they don't ask for your salary requirement, see what they offer, if it's low don't feel afraid to point that out and ask for a more realistic salary. In many cases I've worked in expensive cities, in small offices, that are part of very large companies in different states. Their salary expectations may be great where their HQ is, but might stink in the city. Point that out.

I've also worked in places where the yearly raise percentages reduce as your pay increases. So a starting employee on a starting salary might easily see double digit increases year over year, while an experienced employee might barely keep up with inflation. They struggled to keep experienced talent around.

If you're offered a choice between a small bonus and a pay raise, take the pay raise. That increased base pay makes a difference forever. Say the bonus is $5000 and the pay raise amounts to $2000 the next year. In three years it's worth $6000. In ten it's worth $20000 even if you never get another pay raise again. It's pretty much the best guaranteed investment you can ever make. Now, consider that it'll become part of your base pay history that you then make raises off of, which are percents of your salary, that raise is worth even more! Employers know this and try and convert pay increases into bonuses all the time, it's a one time payment that then gets off their books if they have a bad year the next year. Don't fall for it. There are exceptions, extraordinarily large bonuses shouldn't be turned down of course.

One you accept a salary (this includes your pay increase), commit to working there for at least 12 months. It can suck sometimes, but long term it looks better on your resume. I've typically put in 3-5 years at most places. I've never had to have one of those "why did you leave this prior employer after 3 months?" discussions, but I have had to have "why did you leave this place after working there so long?". In this market, working too short or too long can be unusual. The employee who's working someplace for 17 years and then suddenly wants to change jobs is a red flag. It wasn't boredom that made them change their job, any job is boring after a few years. Getting to 17 means they can beat that problem. Something else happened.

Following this plan, Over the last 18 or so years, starting out with a yearly pay of under $18k, I've managed to get consistent pay increases that are more than double inflation while working for bigCos, year over year pay increases of 15 to 20% have not been uncommon (if you aren't too stuck to a single company). I'm not "rich" by any means, but I live a very comfortable boring suburban life free from any debt beyond a rapidly disappearing mortgage on a very comfortable home with enough left over for lots of overseas travel every year. In about 5-6 years I'll have paid off my home, gone completely debt free, and then will literally have more money than I can spend in a normal day-to-day life. I still have to work, but I rarely have to think much about what things will cost when going out shopping. I went to normal boring state school for university, and have managed to consistently make (or grow my salary faster) than every single one of my peers who went to a "better school". Any advantage they had starting out has more than disappeared over the years.

Startups are a very different beast. And I know that alot of this won't be popular with the startup founders here ;)

#1 Don't accept a bad salary. You'll get all the lines about equity and stock options etc. In the end, unless you are one of the first employees and you happen to hit the lottery and end up at the next billion dollar company, your equity will be worth at or less than most normal bonus packages you'd receive anyway if it's worth anything at all. Take a normal salary. A company with good funding shouldn't squawk at paying their people decent salaries. But you might take a small hit on the salary. Keep a mental note of what this hit is if you go back to a BigCo. Correct for it, act like you were paid the higher amount, when negotiating your new salary with BigCo.

#2 You are very tied to the ups and downs of the company. Expect not to get a pay raise from time to time, especially in the early days until the company starts making a profit. If the goal of the company is not to make a profit and that you'll get your reward out of options, consider your payout divided by the number of years you'll have to put in and see if that makes you happy. Consider what would happen if the payout is $0.

#3 If the business booms, time to renegotiate your salary. Sometimes the company hits super profitability, point out that you took a smaller salary to get the company through the lean years and now it's no longer lean. If you went multiple years without a pay increase, expect the first increase to be unusually large (to make up for it) and future increases to be more normal.

#4 Don't accept ridiculous paycaps. They're stupid. A couple very well known startups cap their employee pay at $120k. One I know of hasn't paid raises for years. The employees who took a pittance first-out-of-college salary are still getting paid that 3,4 and 5 years later -- but now many are married and quite a few are having kids. Their company recently advertised that their valuation is nearing double digit billions (but now in their 5th or 6th funding round with no public plans to sell or go public so equity these days is almost worthless). Does that sound right?

Remember, what's your payout going to be divided by years. Suppose bigCo buys this startup tomorrow, many of those employees might see a sweet $150k payout. Or $30k per year for 5 years of work. Suppose their starting salary was $50k that means they've been working for $80k the entire time. Instead of 5 lean years they could have had 5 satisfied pay years elsewhere.

Even worse, when moving on to another company, especially a bigCo, their suppressed salary puts them way down at the bottom of the pay scale. It's "diseased" their future salary prospects. Just like taking a small raise instead of a bonus "boosts" your future salary prospects, they've managed the inverse...and because the caps and pay policy of this startup are very publicly known, they can't negotiate or talk their way it.

#5 All is not lost, perks are awesome, figure out how much it would cost you out of pocket for the perks you use and then figure that into your total compensation. Some places are receptive to "my total compensation at my last place was $xyz, but I'm looking for a different kind of mix of $qrzw". These are more complicated, but you can say "my last employer gave me about $5k a year in perks that I used. I'd rather have that as salary here". It's reasonable, even if not every place is receptive to it.