My players tend to hire a fair number of hirelings, both men-at-arms and torch-bearers. What often happens is that the men-at-arms do quite a bit of the fighting (and dying), but then the PCs come away with all the XP. My understanding is that it's only retainers (henchmen) that receive shares of XP and treasure, while hirelings just get their agreed-upon wage. But something about this doesn't smell right to me. If you want the hirelings to share in the dangerous stuff, then you shouldn't come away with all of the reward when you didn't take all the risk.
So, should I just keep going as is (all XP and treasure going to PCs, hirelings just get their wage) or am I misunderstanding how this is supposed to work?