Just for a piece of context, this year, the base salary for right out of college software engineers at Google is ~$110,000. I would be very surprised if over the course of 10 years just $60,000 was added to a salary.
Today I'd say the total comp for an undergrad SE (with experience beyond classes, top 10 school) in the Bay Area would be around to $180k, perhaps more depending on skill level. This is at Google/Netflix/Facebook with the latter two probably paying more.
I thought that big tech companies had a steep ladder to the distinguished engineer/fellow level where you get more perks and $?
Otherwise, a staff engineer with lots of experience is valuable, but if he's too valuable the company has screwed up.
If you are in Silicon Valley and at uni, I guess whether you get into Google etc. or not will make a massive difference to your future. It could determine if you have enough money to but a house, have kids in the area in the future, etc. All down to a few interviews.
You should always read salaries as a fraction of the median home price within a ~30 minute radius of where the salary is being paid.
Where $110,000 base salary is offered to new grads (matches my experience at a unicorn, it isn't just Google), it's about 1/12th of a reasonable home.
Where $50,000 is offered to mid-career folks, it's often 1/3rd to 1/4th of a reasonable home.
All politics is local. All salaries are local.
1. Except the economy is global. And people do remote work.
2. The 110k salary person will come out ahead of the 50k salary person in net worth, assuming both manage their money well, despite the cost of living difference. This is due to the value of their house, ability to invest in stock, etc.
However, they fail to see that the hiring process obviously works for Google and it is definitely not "easy". If it were easy, they'd be doing that too and making over 200k at a young age.