[jpdoctor]

Spent a bunch of years in SF and DC.

The fundamental core competencies are quite different. In DC, the primary startup mode is to 1. Suck money out of a gov't agency, by 2. Having a contact willing to sign the checks.

Gov't funding has made that area quite fat. (5 of the 10 wealthiest counties in the US are in greater DC.)

[asolove]

I very much agree, as a DC front-end dev who has worked both for gov't contractors and now for a legitimate b2b startup.

Want to know why the federal government hasn't made much of a dent in the recession? Visit the DC exurbs and then visit the exurbs of any other city in the US. If you never left fifty miles of DC you would be forced to assume there was an economic boom going on.

[pelemele]

The typical federal worker is paid 20% more than a private-sector worker in the same occupation.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2010-03-04-federal-pay_N...

[onemoreact]

The federal government pays it's rank and file with seniority fairly well, but it's executive staff are under paid as are several occupations EX: Optometrist's making ~60% as much as they would in the private sector.

I think it's best summed up as: The federal workforce is disproportionately comprised of scientists and high-end professionals and these workers earn less than their counterparts in the private sector. with the not so minor caviot that rank and file workers are over paid. What's less obvious is output from federal workers; it seems like a few people get the majority of the work done, but you tend to see that in large private companies as well.

[rayiner]

The article talks about average federal pay versus average private sector pay, but that makes no sense. The government doesn't have a lot of customer-facing retail positions and the like, and does have a lot of professional positions (lawyers, economists, scientists, accountants, engineers, etc).

Also, within many (but not all, obviously) occupations, the government tends to hire more qualified people than average because they deal with complex work. Federal accountants aren't handling the work of some 50-person small business, they're auditing the tax returns of multi-billion dollar international corporations. Federal lawyers aren't handling some old guy's will, they're overseeing multi-billion dollar transactions.

[wtvanhest]

It really depends on your quality within title. For example USA today probably considers waffle house cooks making 6 Per hour the same as a government cook working at the state house. There are far more low end cooking jobs by percentage in private sector.

Another thing the USA today article over looks is living expenses. Almost all professional government jobs are in big cities with high cost of living.

It is commonly known that at equal skill level you will make less pay for the government.

[jpdoctor]

> It is commonly known that at equal skill level you will make less pay for the government.

As much as the politicos would like to claim otherwise, I have never heard of anyone taking a govt job so they can make more money.