Twenty five years ago, fed engineers, computer and software engineers made less then their civilian counterparts. Any college engineering grad was viewed as a loser if he/she worked for the fed gov because the salaries were substantially lowered then private starting engineering salaries. Furthermore gov salaries grew at a set rate while private salaries can increase several folds based on how the engineer performed in private companies. During the boom years and market demands for certain tech specialties, salaries and enlistment bonuses were very high. Engineers and computer scientists actually jumped from one company to another company based on salary bidding. Private industry has great rewards but it also has many pitfalls. Age discrimination, education gap, off shoring tech jobs to China and India, and usage of H-1B workers have eroded these private salary advantages in engineering. Since the loser grad who took a job in the gov career and salaries increased slowly over time, the private engineers’ salaries went sabertooth as he/she is laid off due to mergers, economic cycle, management changes, and then rehired doing something totally different. As the engineer ages with each laid off/rehired cycle, their private salaries actually get reduced. This depression is making it even worst. On average the private sector engineer 25 years later earn less then their gov sector engineer. Today many of them are banging on the gov doorstep for a job.
The government did not take away the private sector engineers salaries, it was corporate America who took away the aging engineers’ salaries and off shored their jobs with cheaper Chinese/Indian engineers. PS - to have an engineering salary lower then a gov engineers salary is nothing to brag about either, considering what private engineers and computer/sofware engineers made during the 1980 and 1990’s.
The government did not take away the private sector engineers salaries, it was corporate America who took away the aging engineers’ salaries and off shored their jobs with cheaper Chinese/Indian engineers.Look up Tax Code 1706. See for example Our Low-Tech Tax Code
The FedGov took it ALL away, and then with the H1B's made sure it could never come back.