as far as I know from 2011 batch,
DSTA engineer are paid as below;
Engineers
1st Class - $3,580
2nd Upper - $3,280
2nd Lower - $3,080
No employment below 2nd lower
For guys with
NS, add $300 to the figure above.
you see 1st class with
NS is only 3880, where got 4.5k
even if you add +10% more to this 3880 (I dunno whether got any wage adjustment in 2012 or not, I presume got addition +10%), the max is $4268 for 1st class with
NS......
if the adjustment is +15%, well then 1st class with
NS will get about 446x ~approx 4.5k starting....