>You are massively understating the difficulty of finding candidates willing to get a security clearance, and the cost to the company of sponsoring those clearances.

I find this hard to believe. I'd totally get a security clearance, but no company seemingly offers it, they only want people who have a pre-existing clearance.

Well that’s the second half of the issue with clearances, they cost the company a fortune to sponsor.

> I work in the space. You are massively understating the difficulty of finding candidates willing to get a security clearance, and the cost to the company of sponsoring those clearances. It's not as simple as the compensation number alone.

I don't understand what point you're trying to make. You're saying that a security clearance is a big problem or inconvenience that makes hiring more difficult so salary alone is not comparable... right, but the organization with that big problem is paying less. That's the problem.

sounds like you have a requirement that filters out a lot of people. typically when things get rarer they get more expensive.

Yeah, no surprise. Getting a clearance sucks.

It takes forever and you're subjected to very intrusive scrutiny as well as potentially psychological tomfoolery like polygraphs.

Why would a qualified individual subject themselves to that unless they have no other option.

There's a reason clearance jobs have a reputation as make-work for ex service members.