It doesn’t matter that someone working for the government has the potential to have a much higher impact on a nationwide level than some rank and file worker who works at some blue chip auto insurance company, the moment increased pay for government workers is even brought up, that person imagines it as coming directly out of their paycheck.
See teachers, urban planners, sanitary workers, NASA scientists, etc…
It’s a shame, because I have the unpopular opinion that _more_ government, filled with talented people who actually want to _fix_ the issues they’re passionate about, is the answer to almost all of the USs domestic problems. Right now the highest paid government workers are those on the brink of retirement in administrative positions so far removed from any real work. A bureaucracy of gerontocracy, if you will. I really wish the government (not the political world, but the civil staff) was seen as as a place for passionate young people to aspire to, with the pay to match.