Federal cyber contracters may be earning 9x permanent salaries

Data from federal CIOs – that auditors admit is “incomplete and unreliable” – suggests that cybersecurity contractors are earning nine times more per year than permanent US government cybersecurity staff.

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) found that the total estimated federal cyber workforce was “at least” 63,934 employees costing $9,396,606,633 in salaries, or $145,000 each at a rough average.

The contractor cyber workforce meanwhile was 4,151 contractor staff “with $5,222,725,515 in associated labor costs,” the report shows. That’s a significantly greater $1.2 million per-head each year. 

Are these figures accurate? It’s admittedly unlikely. 

But they are headline numbers in a report that drives home just how poor data on the federal cybersecurity workforce actually is.