Is this a new realization? Herzberg's motivation-hygiene theory explains that 'hygiene' factors keep a person from being unhappy, but aren't themselves motivators. So having a good salary keeps someone from becoming unhappy, but isn't itself a motivator (except possibly a very short time).

And as Gladwell writes in Outliers: "Those three things—autonomy, complexity, and a connection between effort and reward—are, most people agree, the three qualities that work has to have if it is to be satisfying."