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No references ATM, but I believe studies show that the correlation between money and motivation is very large up until you reach the point an employee considers it a fair wage. After that point, the correlation is small.

Of course, what the employee considers a fair wage and what the employer considers a fair wage can diverge significantly.

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Fun. I can imagine motivation-money curves would look a lot like stress-strain curves [1]. A "fair wage" might be akin to the yield strength. Work hardening under cyclic loading probably is similar.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stress%E2%80%93strain_curve

At a startup you are paid primarily via stock options, so if you can't get motivated for the potential millions and millions of dollars they will be worth no amount of cash is going to do it.

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