[dnesting]

The USDS is recruiting federal employees, not contractors. Base salaries can be competitive with typical engineering positions in Silicon Valley. The big difference is the inability of the government to pay anything equivalent to stock/options, bonuses, or perks like free food.

[Turing_Machine]

Historically the tradeoff between government jobs and private sector jobs is that the government jobs pay less, but have more security. Depends on what you want out of life.

[mauricemir]

But the Federal Pension is miles better than the equivalent and eventualy the IRS is going to wake up and start taxing perks like "free" food

[ulfw]

Obviously you can't get stocks or options, but why wouldn't they be willing to pay bonuses for a job well done/performance or provide free food, if that gets the right kind of people into the door? I don't get it.

[dnesting]

Congress decides how the executive branch is paid and how it should use that money. Free food and other "free" perks run afoul of that.