10k is the ceiling. You should know how many years of slogging it takes to reach the ceiling, especially nowadays when merit increments are depressed.

Even if you were at the previous GEO5 ceiling of 7.8k, and newly promoted to SEO1, you will only be at 8.3k. Let's say you get an average merit increment of +230 a year.. how many years will you take to hit 10k? And don't forget that the closer you get to the ceiling, the smaller the merit increments become.

It's a long, long, long time. SEO1 is not an instant 10k. For many years you will have a rather small pay gap with the people who report to you.