Many a disgruntled employee has complained of working for peanuts. But is working for lattes any better? Unemployment rates are still high and wages stagnant, but American workers are more productive than ever. That’s good news for the economy, but means that rank-and-file employees are working longer and harder. And what are we getting for all that extra effort in lieu of more pay? In many cases, gift cards. That’s right: About two-thirds of companies give their employees gift cards, says the Incentive Research Foundation, and it’s the biggest and fastest growing category of employee rewards. In an Incentive Research Federation research report published last year, 12% of responding companies said they gave gift cards for quarterly or end-of-year bonuses, and 43% said they gave gift cards as holiday gifts or bonuses. (MORE: Free Lunches at Work? The Tax Man Wants a Bite) Collectively, American companies spent nearly $23 billion on gift cards for employee “incentive and loyalty” in 2012. While that’s not a small number, data from the St. Louis Fed last month shows that companies made $1.8 trillion in profits in the final quarter of 2012 — a little more than the quarter before that, when profits hit a record high — even as wages as a percentage of GDP hit a record low. In that context, these small-scale rewards — most gift cards are valued at between $25 and $150 — might be categorized as token gestures, if not outright stingy. People in the industry of incentives and recognition — the technical terms for “freebies” and “attaboys” — are quick to point out that gift cards for stores like Starbucks, Best Buy, or The Gap aren’t technically replacing raises and end-of-year bonuses. And that is technically true: Compensation is generally given (and taken away) by a company’s finance department. Goodies like gift cards are generally doled out by the HR department. But that doesn’t mean workers don’t feel like they’ve just had their raises replaced by frappucinos. If the folks in HR are doing their job correctly, though, here’s the funny part: You won’t really