What has been the impact to total economic growth in not keeping federal civil servant salaries in line with inflation?

Currently hundreds of thousands of federal employees lost their jobs, others took the deferred resignation and those checks stop coming in a few weeks. With so many already unemployed, I doubt those people will find employment let alone comparative employment.

I also noticed that many states have started compensating their employees higher than federal rates. It seems federal employee pay is tied to Congress' pay of $174,000/yr. Congress hasn't had a pay raise in well over a decade.

The top of the Grade Scale for a GS15 is now a little more than $195k/year. But if Congress hasn't had a raise in years (I've seen some estimates that congressional pay should be around $285k by now) then that means tens of thousands of federal workers have been underpaid, purchasing power less and less each year since pay increases rarely keep up with inflation.

Doesn't this also impact private sector salaries? An HR professional I know said they frequently consult federal pay in determining compensation adjustments (didn't say if it was industry specific or not to do so).

If federal pay has been artificially kept low, what impact has that had on growing the economy?

A friend of mine makes $150k working for the government in a HCOL area, wife currently out of work (laid off) and raising their newborn, and he's in credit card debt for the first time in his life, no end in sight for stopping it.

What happens when an economic system prioritizes the profits to shareholders at the expense of maintaining a well paid, largely employed population?

It also seems like corporations don’t believe AI is a tool and it is, in fact, a replacement for workers. Wouldn't it then make sense then we all begin working for a government entity or NGO instead?

It seems like the US is driving into a brick wall full speed and the brick wall grew wheels and is rapidly accelerating to meet us head on…scary times.