It’s important for people to know the salary range.
Hope for the best expect the worst mentality as always
so what is the base case? anyone know?
Well, probably the lowest salary anyone has every had is $0 - there are intern positions that pay nothing (though that seems to be happening less and less) and there are startups that expect you to work for nothing, often taking equity instead of salary.
That being said, there are plenty of sites listing average salaries and ranges, like here and here.
It’s going to vary dramatically by location and job function. You’re best bet for figuring out your expectations is to look for sources that have lots of data points local to where you plan to work.
Every couple of months, someone starts a thread in the forum asking what salaries the people here have experienced. Many people do not feel comfortable discussing their income, but we do have a thread where a few people have been willing to share their salary histories: