They get 1/10th the money that folks who own 10-20% get.
That's engineer math, but not financier math.
People at 10-20% are in the room when terms are decided upon, people with 1-2% are typically not. There are a variety of mechanisms by which 1-2% of an acquisition can, in a few failure modes, evaluate to nothing.
Here's one: You own 1% (by current dilution) of a company. This company has not done well. There exists a company which wants to buy it.
The co-founders collectively own 60%, with approximately 30% being owned by investors, and approximately 10% held in aggregate by employees. You watch the M&A team, VC partners, and founders walk into a room. Two hours later, they walk out, and everyone looks fairly happy. You overhear the VC say "$20 million."
You think you're getting $200k, right?
Would it surprise you the next day when you're given a contract to sign and told that you've been allocated a $10k signing bonus with the new company? And that this is, by the way, it?
How the heck did that happen? The VCs were a little displeased with their return, since this company did poorly, so they played hardball with your founders. The VCs got $10 million. (Check those percentages again. Yeah. I know.) This represented 100% of the purchase price, and as it didn't clear the VC's liquidation preference, the common stock is valueless. You and the founders hold common stock. For their participation in the deal, the founders were guaranteed 3x $3 million signing bonuses with the acquirer. This leaves $1 million to pay the lawyers, cover the accountancy costs, etc etc etc. But hey, because you're such a nice guy, despite your options being worthless they fought hard for you and convinced the acquirer to cut a check for three whole months of your old salary.
You would be, of course, free to decline this bonus. The door is on your left.
And, to be fair, you did better than another 1% owner of the company -- employee #1, who went on to greener pastures a year ago. His shares have vested. But he was "disloyal" and "didn't stick it through", so hey, no check for him at all.
They get 1/10th the money that folks who own 10-20% get.
What do you think should happen?
There's only 100%. Some investors have liquidation preferences over others.
The buyer, of course, is free to give money to people post-deal as it sees fit.