Originally Posted by Unregistered

After 7 years, salaries can diverge a lot.

Size of merit increments can vary by a lot during the non-covid years especially. It can be as low as 170, as high as 310 at the lower subgrades.

Promotion year from geo3 to geo4 matters a lot for these few cohorts. If you were promoted to geo4 just before the Oct'22 salary revision, you lose out a lot. The biggest difference can be observed between officers getting this promotion in Apr 2022, vs those getting it in Apr 2023. The latter in some cases can overtake the former in salary point.

Starting salary also matters. For those with 7+ YOE, they joined in the era when starting salary differed a noticeable bit based on honours class and other pre-service factors.