There may be no wiggle room for TOP starting pay but there are almost always increments of increased pay due to experience AND/OR level of education. For instance, A person with no experience and the minimum education might start at 23$ an hour at a utility, while a person with 10 years of experience and some extra education might start out at 28$ an hour for the exact same job. Navy experience is not always given a 1 to 1 ratio with true commercial experience, but experience to pay judgements are probably very different at different plants. I've seen this in job offers I turned down and job offers I accepted, and friends of mine have talked about this.