[touchfaith]

You're taking job advice from a bunch of college kids that have never had a job, let alone had to support themselves?

nice.

Anyway, it is not very uncommon to see a place take the opportunity of an opening to cut cost. This happens everyday. You are not in a union, you are a free agent.

You need to decide what you would accept the job for, not what someone else could or did make in the position.

Weight the responsibility and/or chances for advancement against the pay, and make your desicion.

In the real world, it is not very uncommon to sit directly next to someone, doing the exact same job, for drastically different pay.

To me and from the tone of your original post, it sounds like you are suffering from either a bit of low morale, or are just simply getting a little burnout. Taking the new position for higher pay will go a long ways towards the morale issue (and you need it to if you are going to supervise people). The new position may help the burnout temporarily, but if you are really burning out in this job, it will only be a temporary solution.