yes, that's part of the underpinnings of intrinsic motivation, that you'll be rewarded appropriately for achievement, not just monetarily, but also in status an

yes, that's part of the underpinnings of intrinsic motivation, that you'll be rewarded appropriately for achievement, not just monetarily, but also in status and esteem. expectancy theory [0] is one of the frameworks for understanding this. as others have pointed out, pay is inextricably tied with perceptions of fairness, so it's a highly relative measure. if programmers are paid 30k on average, then getting 35k seems fair to you. but if the average is 60k, then 35k seems insulting. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expectancy_theory https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expectancy_theory