How underpaid am I

How many years out of college are you?

Seems totally in line. The stories online are of superstar analysts 500k year after year before going to PM and making $5m year after year. In reality the vast majority of funds are small sized ones like yours nd people make 50k - 100k base and 50% - 100% bonus. And these are just the ones that survive mind you.

If you're correct in your self assessment of PnL contribution you should push for more variable comp/better trajectory. That's reasonable. But be really honest with yourself - are you only counting the winners? Are you ignoring all the ties when you advocated an idea and it didn't get put in and would've been a huge loser? Are you downplaying the times when you got in/out of a position too early and left money on the table? Did you just get lucky on a lot of your calls? And most importantly, are you really difficult to replace or are you just a cog? Most people over-estimate their own contribution.

First you have to define what you mean by underpaid.

1. Underpaid relative to what the fund can practically support? Consider how much your fund has available to pay out, and who else is ahead of you in line. 

- What sort of fees is your fund charging? How has overall performance been?

- How many people are there on the investment team? How many are ahead of you in seniority/tenure? What proportion of overall performance is your 100-200bp contribution?

2. Underpaid relative to other jobs? Maybe, since your comp package is on par with junior bankers who have less experience, less value add, and are more interchangeable. But you're not working the same hours.

3. Underpaid relative to what you could potentially be making? No way to tell unless you go out and let the market value you. The trouble with this industry is that it's a fun job which lots of people do for love of the craft. So you have a ton of labor oversupply driven by a non-economic factor, which is a persistent headwind for comp.

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Bruh...not sure how to break it to you, but most people's earnings power in this industry comes with more experience. You're <25 in age, you're fine with what you're making right now. You should be focused on doing well and learning, and you'll be making multiples of what you're making in a few years either at this fund or another

Almost identical seat as you. Same pay structure. Same experience. It is what it is. Disappointing but I guess this is how the industry works now for juniors. 

You mention a divergence between current pay and market value, but have you actually received an offer for better comp elsewhere? Unless you have another fund willing to pay you more, you are getting the market rate for your services in that location. At the fund I worked at I seem to recall new analysts out of IB were usually paid around USD 120-150k (base) but that was for seats in NYC where living costs are higher. If you think you are good, and we all do otherwise we wouldn't be in this business, go to a multi-manager and try your luck. But, given how hard it is to find a seat in the HF business these days, I would think long and hard before leaving what looks like a decent shop from what you have described. From my experience, it can take closer to 10 years at a single manager to get real P&L linkage so it seems that you are on the right track where you are now.  

You're not underpaid. Full stop. No discussion. 

That said you're on a very good trajectory so keep up the good work and over time you're should get paid a lot more, either here or at another shop. In 10 years you're going to reflect back on this is realize how silly it was you thought you were underpaid. For now, just focus on continuing to learn and improve and you should have a good career. However, if you really are upset just test the market and see what your worth elsewhere.