The truth is that some federal employees are grossly overpaid. Others are underpaid.
The trick is paring down the overpaid while retaining the underpaid.
A far easier road to take would be to cut the areas of the fed gov that do not have a valid reason to exist. (probably more than 50% of agencies have no Constitutional basis)
Then, when the fedgov public sector unions have been greatly reduced the pay situation can be normalized to the prevailing private sector rates for each job type.
What agency do you work for?