[bazillion]

The average pay of contractors is between 70k-100k. The only ones making more than that are typically program managers for large contracts or other administrative folk who work on winning contracts for their company.

Contractors are typically not busy making powerpoints, but busy actually working on what they're hired to do since they have to do their hours. The busy work is left to the military folk and interns as stated in the other comment.

[blantonl]

Government contractors with active security clearances command far more than 70k-100K - an active TS/SCI clearance can take over a year to process - and the number of hurdles to clear is daunting for the average person.

An enlisted E-7 just coming out of the military with an active clearance and some technology experience is going to bank with the contractors out there and probably do very little real actual hard work.

That security clearance really is the willy wonka golden ticket...