Does money matter to us? Stupid question, might be our initial reaction. Of course, all of us do deserve more, much more money than we're actually earning. But let's be honest. Nearly all of us working in the software industry are in the comfortable position of having more money available than we actually need for a living. Sure, our perception might be different from time to time, but in the end, we have to concede that for any serious software developer who really cares for her craft, getting more money is no incentive to be more motivated, working faster, smarter, better, ...

Chad Fowler put in in Eight-Hour Burn in My Job Went To India that way:
When I was a teenager ..., I would have been happy to live off of the amount of money that I waste now ... Apparently, when money was scarce, I found ways to be more efficient with my cash. And, the end result was essentially the same.
Joel Spolsky goes one step further by stating Incentive Pay Considered Harmful. Tom De Marco and Timothy Lister devote an entire chapter of Peopleware on the teamicidal effects of annual salary or merit reviews, awards, prizes, or any other kind of bonuses tied to performance.

So let's not fool ourselves or our bosses by announcing that we'll be performing much better once we've got a decent salary. We are lying - we know it, and, unfortunately, it's very likely that our boss knows it too.