Hi Man,
This posting is out of Personal Envy with the person whom you referred as so called "FRIEND". First make it clear if he is your real friend, if so, stop posting such things in a common forum like this and betray your friend, at the same time if he is not your friend but just for the sake of posting you want to refer the person as a Friend, it's just a positive waste of time, ignore and keep moving.
There are lot many things in life which you (we) need to bother about in a productive way, instead, wasting time on such things in a knowledge sharing forum is not appreciated.
You feel like you are equally competent enough with your friend or more, try to sell yourselves in the job market with all the potentials you have... As some of the members said wait for some more span and if your so called friend is sustaining in the system then he deserves that pay.
None of the company pays more for a lesser competent employee (always). IT'S A COLD DAY IN HELL.
Rgds
Albert