Actually, low grade/wage workers are a thing of past in the federal government.. Most of these lower wage jobs are contracted to the private sector, ie secretarues, maintenace, landscape etc, date entry clerks. This is one reason why Federal Gov’t salaries are so high on average as it mostly a professional workface(engineers, IT, accountants, budget and Project mangers) and these lower contracted out positions are not figured into the average.
You are wrong, I am with DoD, we have many low wage employees making between $7.50 to $10 hourly. They are not GS employees, they have other titles and many are one to two year temp positions. There are many contractors for various low skill jobs, but it depends on the region.