Dismay about pay hike curtailed in review (9)
I believe the answer is:
appraisal
'review' is the definition.
'dismay about pay hike curtailed' is the wordplay.
'dismay' becomes 'appal' (synonyms).
'about' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'pay hike' becomes 'raise' (I've seen this in another clue).
'curtailed' means to remove the last letter.
'raise' with its last letter taken away is 'rais'.
'appal' enclosing 'rais' is 'APPRAISAL'.
'in' is the link.
(Other definitions for appraisal that I've seen before include "Evaluation - price survey" , "judgement" , "judgment" , "rating" , "valuation" .)