The people saying 5% are probably wishful thinkers. It's a fact of life that in all but very very few cases it is only the VC's and (sometimes) the founders that get rich.

There are exceptions, I got a tiny part of google because I was there (briefly) very early and that paid off nicely. And there are other examples of non-founders doing well, where "well" means life changing amounts of money (measured in millions).

But people need to keep in mind that those are exceptions, not the rule. Most non-founders end up with what amounts to a nice bonus, a year or two's salary.

Unless I'm mistaken this question was sort of "what's normal for this situation?".

What's normal varies but not by much. 5% is high. I agree with tptacek, 5% is what you give the 2nd CEO (which is a different topic, that's usually 5% wasted because that CEO will probably drive your company out of business. Anyone remember the Pepsi guy running Apple?). .5-1.5% sounds about right for the first engineering hire.

Remember, you can always give out more stock but it is close to impossible to take it back.