Bit of an old thread, but any number of folks I know who left federal service did so for wages that eclipsed our four star directors salary, easily. Some got RSUs that were well above their salary as a fed. Some simply reported 150, 200, 250% increases in pay. I have to think hard of ones who took a pay decrease - I can think of three, but those were lifestyle changes. One really wanted to be an RN and that wasn't really something my agency did. One quasi-retired and we joked they were going to be a slumlord as they were going to manage a modest family rental property. One simply wanted a very different type of change to express their creativity and art (again, not really a DoD type enterprise).

But those scores of other early or mid career (or a few late career) departures were for higher pay.