Professional employees (lawyers, accountants, scientists) make less in government (usually much less), but non-professional employees usually make more in government.
How are you defining "professional" in this context?
There's a classical sense of professional it seems you're reaching for, but I'm having a hard time thinking of a non-professional white-collar worker which would do better in federal government than the private sector.
Eg, surveyors are clearly professionals. Software developers? IT?
Software engineers, IT, EE, ME, tend to be paid significantly less than they would make outside of gov service. This of course varies a bit by level, but it's generally true.
There's a classical sense of professional it seems you're reaching for, but I'm having a hard time thinking of a non-professional white-collar worker which would do better in federal government than the private sector.
Eg, surveyors are clearly professionals. Software developers? IT?