Dear Lloyd:

You don't sound petulant, you sound angry that good ole Lloyd should just keep doing everything for everybody and not get paid more for it. Being angry is never good for either your health or your career, but it can be used as a spur to do something positive about your situation.

First of all, it's clear that you aren't going to have your salary raised to the level of your underling, so what can you do? I don't know enough about the situation to give you specific advice, but here are some generic suggestions (and I will use "he" in my answers only because you indicated the person was male.):

1. Does this new employee have rare technical skills? If so, it is not unusual for the person supervising him to make less. For example, in some companies a brilliant research chemist needs a manager to supervise his work and be sure that his research is being done in areas and in ways that will benefit the company. The chemist may be paid more than the manager because they are on two different career tracks: one technical and the other managerial. In the long-run, however, managers who rise up the ladder, usually end up being paid far more than technical people.

2. Does the new employee have technical skills you can learn? If so, you might acquire those skills and use them to boost your salary too, either at your current firm, or another.

3. Do you think you will be more appreciated or better paid at another firm? It never hurts to discreetly look around, or to contact your professional society (if you belong to one) to find out what the going salaries are in your field. It's often preferable to leave for a higher salary than to bully your current firm into giving you more money than they want to, because the lasting resentment can scuttle a career.

4. Do you want to stay in your firm? Then just try to stop being angry and enjoy the fact that this high-priced help will do a good job for you and in the process make you look good.

The Career Doctor