I joined an internship in San Francisco last year, and surprised that they are only willing to pay me $1.5k per month, I later realized it's even lower than the minimum wage of SF. It is a small but funded company with less than 10 people.

A friend of mine even got an unpaid internship, because the J1 internship visa was considered as a return, and he "earned" the experience to work in SV.

I wonder how are the salaries distributed? How much do small startups like this usually pay? Standard deviation?