No self-respecting engineer should or would take $50/60k a year in the Bay Area (heck, most of the country). It's fine for founders to pay themselves that (and, indeed, they probably should) but asking employees to take that tiny salary for your dream is never going to fly.
Depends on the type of business, if they are going for the get big fast model that is probably true. If they are in it for the long haul something more sustainable will prevent founders from eventually loosing motivation due to finding it hard to make ends meet.
This is why the Bay Area is a horrible region for a lot of startups, especially ones that plan on pursing monetization early. Few startups can afford inflated Bay Area salaries with minimal VC funding. Unless you're really capitalizing big-time on the VC culture of the Valley, it's a bad place to be for a startup--and this is illustration of that.
For comparison, a $60k/year starting salary is the norm in most American cities (and it provides exactly the same lifestyle that $100k does in Silicon Valley).
I would argue that the intangibles of basing in SV are probably worth more than the inflated salaries are. After all, you really shouldn't be hiring anyway until you're funded.
Starting salary for engineers on average is about that level. Imagine if you took out all the Valley and NYC salaries- you'd be far closer to the above number than you'd think.
No self-respecting engineer should or would take $50/60k a year in the Bay Area (heck, most of the country). It's fine for founders to pay themselves that (and, indeed, they probably should) but asking employees to take that tiny salary for your dream is never going to fly.