Generally when people use their total pre-tax income when answering annual income in surveys. That pay might include a base pay plus bonuses. I suspect that most people include bonuses when reporting compensation. However, I suspect that many do not include things like stock options or grants when reporting total annual income.
The separate question of whether you are being taken advantage of is very contextual. Relevant questions include:
Is my salary not improving even though my skills and domain knowledge are dramatically different?
How does my salary compare to other developers at other companies in my city/state/region with similar skills, experience and responsibilities?
How does my salary compare to other developers and/or other roles within my own company - is their evidence that it is unfair?
Compensation information at the appropriate level of specificity [role, training, skills, domain knowledge, location, industry and company size] is rarely available at all to individuals at least at a reasonable cost. Sometimes it is available through HR benchmarking companies that sell the information to employers.
This information asymmetry tends to give negotiating advantage to the employer.
The separate question of whether you are being taken advantage of is very contextual. Relevant questions include:
Is my salary not improving even though my skills and domain knowledge are dramatically different?
How does my salary compare to other developers at other companies in my city/state/region with similar skills, experience and responsibilities?
How does my salary compare to other developers and/or other roles within my own company - is their evidence that it is unfair?
Compensation information at the appropriate level of specificity [role, training, skills, domain knowledge, location, industry and company size] is rarely available at all to individuals at least at a reasonable cost. Sometimes it is available through HR benchmarking companies that sell the information to employers.
This information asymmetry tends to give negotiating advantage to the employer.