However, when I worked at Headquarter Air Force Space Command, I was amazed at the final contracted labor (as well as other) costs that come about through the normal (well, normal for the Government) process of contracting out Government work.
Additionally, unless the values quoted in the article are further defined as to the type and category of labor (which will determine what the final, contractor billable, labor hour costs end up being), comparing these hourly costs to each other may, or may not, be valuable.
It took me quite a number of years to learn how much of a budget projection (3-5 years out, on a rolling yearly submittal, revised as directed by congressional annual actual budgets) to submit (with both an inflation and cost of money percentage factored into the submittal).
Bottom-line: I regularly tell people that the American public should be very wary of solving anything through the Federal (and lower levels of) Government. Efficiency is not the Government's forte.
There is no problem so great, that the government can’t make even worse.