The salary numbers are all tongue in cheek, although its pretty common for entry level game industry programmers to make $60K or less. For comparison the producer makes $100K, which is way above the average producer salary (~$75K) and almost twice entry level producer salary.
You have to take into account where the game industry jobs are, too. I work across the highway from id, and around here I wouldn't be shocked to find out entry level programmers make $60k/year. It's low, but not unreasonable considering the glut of people who seem to want in to the industry.
I started at $72,000 and that seemed pretty common.
I don't have any concrete numbers, but I can say with reasonable certainty that 60k/year is standard entry-level income at a couple large studios.
This is probably a decade old based on the source code.
Crunch time all year round baby!
Amen, brother! (Or did I just hear a great big woosh blowing past my head?)