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.

>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.

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

> 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.