I didn't see your message until after I finished posting mine but I was trying to get at the same point. Money may not motivate me to code but that doesn't mean it's not a motivation to get me to code what the company wants me to. I can choose what projects I want to work on. There are no shortages of team that will take good software engineers.

That's exactly it. If my own projects were paying the bills I'd be working on them full time. As they don't (yet!) I'll trade a bunch of my time for some guaranteed income working on something not as interesting.

That's not to say I'm only there for the cash - I legitimately do like my job - but the salary offered is the sole reason I started working there over anywhere else. Raises and bonuses are what'll keep my eyes from wandering over other job ads in the long term.

This is exactly right. Good programmers can for the most part take their pick of job offers. The key part here is in order to motivate a good programmer to work for you you have to offer competitive pay and a competitive environment. The reality is that they can probably quit working for you and get a raise to boot if they feel unhappy.