The General Schedule pay tables for federal civilian employees is extremely outdated and is extremely out of sync with the private sector.
Civilian Federal Employees have seen some of the lowest pay increases in history. The pay gap widened versus the private sector by 8% last year alone and now sits at over 34% lower than it's private sector counter-part. That's significant.
At the same time, fed employment by state has consistently and significantly dropped since 2000 (and earlier) with exception of fed employment in WV. This means that fewer and fewer civilian fed employees are having to deal with addressing the same work-load (if not more) than existed in 2000. Yet, they are continually overlooked when it comes to proper compensation.
Fed Employees drive the economy too.