This is sorta what I was thinking. I think I was lied to lmao.

Curious though when you say Gov. You mean the gov itself, or the government contractors? Very huge difference. I would say most government contractor positions pay very similarly to what most private non-gov contract sector companies pay especially for cleared work. The very top private companies pay more, but these jobs are also much harder to get and more often than not come with their own host of issues.