You're thinking of individual contractors, but I don't think the federal government hires people like that at all. They use companies like Blackwater, and they pay a lot more.
Think of how much you pay the car dealer to work on your car. $80/hr? $100/hr? The mechanic only makes a fraction of that. If you needed a mechanic full time, would you contract out to the dealer or hire a mechanic directly?
The company I worked for in Houston did a lot of contract work for oil companies. They charged them between $50 and $150 for our work, but paid us about $22-$25. If they could hire us directly or as individual contractors for twice the pay they would have... and they did after we had some layoffs (voided the no compete clause). But good luck trying to add socialist federal jobs in place of capitalist free market contractor ones.
I can vouch for that.
