Associate salaries continue to skyrocket, with 19 firms so far adopting — and in some cases even exceeding — the staggering pay scale set by the California high-tech firm Gunderson Dettmer Stough Villeneuve Franklin & Hachigian.

The firm unwittingly set off what has become a bicoastal frenzy when it raised its associate starting salaries nearly 50 percent, to $145,000, last month.