I would've been employee #22 at the company. I also worked at another startup - 0.1% for employee #13. That may have been low-balled a bit because I was straight out of high school.

I've heard that the options pool is usually about 20% of the company, the first hire gets about 2.5%, and then it decreases exponentially from there. So the second hire might get 1.5%, the third 1%, the tenth about 0.2%, the 20th 0.01% (perhaps a bit higher; it seemed low to me too, which is why I didn't take the job), and on down. If you gave 2% to each of the first 10 employees, the options pool would be exhausted right there.

Of course, the company is hopefully growing all this time. But if you're employee #20 or even #10 and the company is profitable, they may be heading for a liquidity event soon, in which case there's not much time for growth.

My current situation - no equity at all - is atypical, because it's a bootstrapped startup and the founder really wants to maintain control. IMHO it's probably a mistake - I know I'd work a whole lot harder if I had equity. But I get a decent salary, and it's really the founder's call...