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Take that with a grain of salt. At the US national labs (Sandia, Los Alamos, PNNL, ...), ~$70k is what a postdoc makes. A Scientist I starts at ~$120k.

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National labs are a tiny (and highly sought after) sliver. In my experience of rummaging through public wage records, I have never seen a staff scientist at state run university outside of the $60k-$80k range.

National labs are indeed above the DoD average, but NAWCAD isn't a state-run university either.

High probability this clown was compensated in a pay band[1] that spans the equivalent of GS-12/13 for the locality[2].

[1] https://www.federalregister.gov/d/2010-22172/p-169

[2] https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/pay-leave/salaries...

Yeah, he's probably paid around 140k. (Given his age [0], and knowing that first year scientists at similar places start at GS-13, I'm going to guess he's at a GS-14 equivalent with DC area locality pay.)

This, plus your internal grant money not only covers your salary but overhead, means a 140k person costs 300k or more.

Federal scientists are typically paid through a few projects that total to 100%, so I doubt all of the 462k from the article went to paying him, but probably a large chunk of that did.

[0] PhD in 1999?

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