The sad fact is that these non-issues only become issues as a consequence of bad longstanding policy. These issues are a structural problem that has been ignored for decades.<p>DoD IT largely gets paid pennies compared to private industry. They often also are not on a standard 40 hour work week. That is what's advertised, but often its much more; but its dynamic (further driving this down at the individual level).<p>They all get paid roughly the same (based on pay classification).<p>Additionally, as with any centralized organization, those exceptional individuals that can produce more, naturally have coercive social pressure applied to them until they normalize to the status quo which in government is significantly less than private industry. Incentivizing as little getting done as possible, and bringing productive efforts down to the lowest common denominator.<p>Importantly, no amount of money can solve this problem.<p>Worse, as your reputation and its related known costs (both monetary and personal) become well known; real talent won't even bother applying.<p>This is because, there is no amount of money that you can pay an intelligent individual that will justify an exchange for their sanity. Just like Adam Smith's comments on work at certain employers or types that are unpleasant forcing higher wages, this is one area where the wages can never be high enough (and they are slave wages at their current levels).<p>Without addressing the underlying problems, any solution is doomed to failure.