Here's one government employees providing stats and experiences about what it is like to work for the government: https://www.betonit.ai/p/the-joy-of-government-employment
What you USED to get in exchange for less salary was stability as government jobs were viewed as less vulnerable to economic cycles and uncertainty. Now that value prop is gone
Government jobs often have nicer health care plans than many corporate plans (but some corporate plans are very nice too).
Government jobs are still likely to have a defined benefit pension. Those are potentially a large deferred compensation, that can be hard to evaluate fiscally, but can be an amazing resource. If you can manage to get 20 years of Active Duty military, retirement benefits are pretty good, and there's nothing private sector that is close to that.
"Compared with private-sector workers, federal workers tend to be older, more educated, and more concentrated in professional occupations. To account for those differences, the Congressional Budget Office limited its comparisons to employees with a set of similar observable characteristics—education, occupation, years of work experience, geographic location, size of employer, veteran status, and certain demographic characteristics (sex, race, ethnicity, marital status, immigration status, and citizenship)—in this report"
Not sure what you think this shows?
government employment is a blight upon the economy
government employment is terrible for society as a whole
A more balanced review from the Congressional Budget Office. [0]
TLDR;
1. Wages tend to be lower for government employees, but benefits are better, making total compensation more competitive
2. Even with this effect, the higher you go in education, the more likely wages and total comp are lower for government employees
I mean this thread is on the federal government not state governments so your link isn't really relevant.
Federal government employees cannot make more than the VP ($235,100). So if you know a role that pays more than that it pays less in the federal government. (There is some hand wavey-ness around locale pay and stuff but we're not talking 2x).
Medical specialists (certain types thereof) and surgeons employed by the federal government (VA, DOD, etc) commonly earn $3xx,xxx or even $4xx,xxx - which is less than they’d get in the private sector - I’m pretty sure some of the more highly paid ones are getting at least double the VP’s salary (but not all the non-salary perks the VP gets, like a 33 room mansion)
VA base salaries max out at $400K, but I believe you can get much higher into the 400s, even into the 500s potentially, with market pay / allowances / etc - https://www.va.gov/OHRM/Pay/2024/PhysicianDentist/PayTables....
DOD and PHS uniformed physicians get base pay per military pay scales, but allowances/bonuses/etc push that significantly higher, although still not as high as civilian pay rates
IHS base pay, like VA, maxes out at $400k. I believe this is due to a legal provision that says no federal employee can get more base pay than the President