[nl]

There was a thread on this on HN last month: "Ask HN: Has anyone worked at the US National Labs before?"[1]

Most comments note how the pay is less than FAANG; eg the top voted comments:

"Pay is pretty good by almost any standards except FAANG."

And elsewhere:

"The pay at a DOE lab is less than FAANG (PhD student interns might be around $80k/yr and starting staff scientists maybe $130k/yr), but the tradeoff for some people would be the research-flavor of the work, and the flexibility."

etc etc

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34414527