Worked for a govt contractor years ago and I would imagine the payout from the govt contract was at least 2-3x. There were usually 2-3 layers of people getting paid and I don't think any of them were hurting. Of course no employee was getting a massive payout compared to private.

Govt > contractor > sub-contractor > employee was pretty common. I never knew of anyone being a direct contractor to the agency since the contracts were so large and involved a lot of employees.