My Dad worked for the State of California. "Back then" part of the understanding for being a state worker is that you were paid less than if you worked in private industry. In exchange for lower pay, you got job security, the fringe benefits like medical/dental, and a pension system.

When I started with WA, the understandings were essentially the same. Now, at least at the Fish Bio level, the state folks are something like 10-20% behind county, tribe, feds, or privates. And, job security has disappeared.

WDFW is losing technical staff to retirement or other other employers. If people want quality resource management we will need to pay for it. We will get what we pay for.