A lot of people do a lot of things for reasons other than money. Almost all technical books, for example, do not make very much money for their authors. Certainly not enough to justify the work they put into them. But thankfully a lot of folks still think it's a worthwhile thing to do.
I'm sure non-monetary concerns are a significant factor in everyone's job choices. Otherwise why aren't we all spammers or grifters, or selling bullshit "audiophile" equipment at crazy markups? Are there any companies you wouldn't work for even if they paid you much more than the competition? Logically the reverse must also be true, that you will work somewhere for below average because you enjoy working there.
Yes, in most common cases what you say may be true, a lot of typical employers are exploitative. But PA isn't a typical case. PA very much is family. At a normal company it would be very unusual for everyone at a company to attend a coworker's wedding, but that's absolutely the way PA is. And not because of some bullshit corporate culture but just because that's how they've been and they've struggled to maintain that level of closeness even as they've grown.
Every company is pretty much a family. For all workable definitions of a family.
>>And they are a content and events company not a software startup.
Which means nearly any person who is good at software who isn't in immediate need of money should abandon them.
>>They need coders but for them it's a cost center, not a profit source like at software companies.
If your work doesn't add even that much value to the company, I'm not sure(unless you are really desperate for a job) why should even want to work for such a place.
>>You can make a decent living at PA, definitely, but don't expect the sort of wages you'd make from a software company.
Again, why would any one want to work there after knowing this.
>>Even when PA is in a period of expansion and growth that growth is nothing compared to what is typical at a tech startup.
So even in the best situation for the company, you still get screwed.
>>As a rule nobody works there because of the money,
Sorry but I totally refuse to believe in this. In fact this is a serious red flag. In most common cases, this is the most common story circulated so that employees can be paid less to make the founder little more richer.
Once you sell the story that money is evil, and workaholism till death as a holy virtue. You can now continue to demand as much work you want low prices and people have to just comply. On top of that you are selling the "We are family" story, which is in reality why you must sacrifice your life to make the head of the family richer.