From what I've seen with software engineering positions, you can expect roughly a 10-25% year over year salary increase. I also can't stress enough how much negotiating a higher starting salary can have an impact over your long term prospects. It's very important to know what you're worth on the market so that you can make sure that you're compensated fairly for the amount of experience AND potential that you have. Recruiting engineers usually costs about 10-20k, so companies more likely than not will give you at least a 10% increase to keep you from leaving, and more based on how much you were able to deliver and how well you can negotiate.
That's as ridiculous a statement as expecting someone to make $5+ million after 30 years. I didn't say it will go up forever. This growth won't keep going for more that 5-10 years, after which it will go down to the 5% range. I have software engineer friends who started 8 years ago at 60k and now make around 180-200k as principal engineers, roughly a 15% increase YoY, after which salary stays stagnant unless if you get an MBA and move into management roles.
