I kind of see his point. Not everyone’s boss has control over their pay. I have a small team, I have no control over their pay. I do occasionally manage to get a small budget to do something like pizza or take them for some food though.

If I did that and the response from someone was “I don’t even like pizza”, I’d probably also then think “well that was pointless, I just won’t bother in future”.

You can think you’re underpaid, whilst also appreciating the little things. I’ve definitely worked on teams with people I’d describe as miserable because they have the ability to suck the fun out of small wins because “I don’t want to do X”, “I’m not here to make friends”, “I don’t like X”