I recently started helping one of my vendor/customer coworker to join our engineering company. Generally referred him to my manager and explained to him what job postings where good for him to apply, he created a list and I gave a short description of the positions. Everything went well, he interviewed and got a job offer this past week.

I am genuinely happy for him since I know he is a good person and worker. However the job offer he got is more than what I get (about 10% more) same job pay grade but slightly less responsibilities according to the job title.

For comparison he has 5 years experience in the industry but with different companies and a associates degree. I have 5 years with the same company (where he applied), BS in Mechanical Engineering and a Masters in Engineering Management.

My question is, should I address this with my employer? I don't really think it's fair for the people that have been loyal to a company to get paid less than new employees.

if yes, how should I address this?

I know this is very common, so I am looking for people that have dealt with this previously.