Some jobs have non-pecuniary benefits, such as social status or personal gratification; these mean that people are willing to do the work for less than they otherwise would (even to the point of making the position volunteer-only). I am not sure what someone 'deserves' for being a lifeguard, or any other job with substantial non-pecuniary benefits, but these things should be taken into account.
so an inverse compensating differential
We were paid 50 cents above minimum wage, and it wasn’t until just recently that I realized what was going on: the park was leveraging the social status associated with being a guard in order to pay us much less than we deserved for such a demanding job. They substituted “hero worship” (like you mentioned) for the cash our labor was actually worth.
I quit a month before the season ended and don’t intend to go back.