That's not how this works.

It actually is. The question was about motivation, not compensation. In this case the question was how to properly motivate someone with a crappy job. I'm saying it doesn't matter what job they have. People are people. Let's put a pin in it and say that it takes a business degree to compensate people, but it takes a psychology degree to motivate people. If you're poor and there are no prospects for you, you're unlikely to be smiling about it.

$10/hr = slavery? Perhaps you should tell actual slaves that.

In the US, $10 hour is basically an unlivable wage anywhere near a body of water larger than a trout pond. Not in SE Asia, where as I understand it a few US dollars makes you king for a day, but in SE Portland it is.

So, how much would you pay nozzle jockeys? At what pay are they not underpaid?

Stop making this about gas station attendants. Anyone expected to do a job for a whole day needs to make enough money to live, or they're being underpaid, regardless of the job. $10/hour ($80/day before taxes) is really obviously not enough money for anyone without the word "teen" in their age.

Maybe they should explore other avenues. There's a wealth of opportunity.

Sigh. And the people who replace them? Same problem. The issue isn't that "this one guy here" isn't paid enough, it's that "an entire job field" doesn't pay enough. People aren't stopgaps for machine labor. If you hire a person in a world without a UBI, you're morally entangled in their well-being whether you like it or not.

I've been motivated in every single of my < $10/hr jobs. What's their excuse?

They're obviously not you. If you can't even forgive them for that, maybe it's best you stay out of discussions about the ethics of market wages.