I have worked for a certain US federal gov’t agency for a bit under a year. I was hired in at the standard GS-5 pay level for my position. Earlier this week I accepted a position in the private sector for over a $20k/year increase in salary. Today I let coworkers know about my leaving at the end of the month. One coworker, a GS-9 employee with an 11 year tenure asked why I was leaving. When I told him the pay he seemed genuinely hurt and told me that he didn’t make that much until just last year. He discouraged me from openly sharing my pay as he thinks it will cause most employees below the GS-9 level (most of our employees with the same job title) to start looking for new jobs. The coworker I used as a reference to get my new position has already been putting in applications. I think the GS-9 is going to start doing the same.