I'm currently with an economic stat board, Senior Manager position with about 5 years of working exp in the public service (stat boards that don't use the MX scheme). I received a verbal offer from a ministry but it comes with a $700 pay cut, and I was told this is the best offer and every other ministry will offer the same salary for a similar job scope. Does anyone have info on whether this is true? Is there a policy that caps the salary across all ministries, and is it really true that social/community sector ministries pay so much less than economic stat boards? The drop is quite steep even though I am very interested in the job scope; wondering whether merit increments in a ministry will be able to make up for a $700 drop in a few years' time..