Talent doesn’t go into public service anymore unless they have extraordinarily rare values. Even if tech salaries get cut in half they’d be a good deal higher t

Talent doesn’t go into public service anymore unless they have extraordinarily rare values. Even if tech salaries get cut in half they’d be a good deal higher than government salaries. Working a government job in the Bay Area means accepting a well below poverty line income. The room for advancement is also terrible as non-management engineer tracks top out above $600k in the private sector if you never make distinguished engineer and in the millions if you can. Meanwhile the CTO roles in important government organizations often list in the $140-160k range. A 2% pension only goes so far. Some of us actually want to own homes. If government actually wants talents it needs to be realistic about what the market is and take some money out of the insane amount it spends on contractors to pay accordingly. It also needs to build a culture that lets it hire well and lets it fire when it makes mistakes.