You're basing this on general perceptions, when a lot of contractors are people who work as required and are on call 24/7. Take system admins for example, if they have a crisis on the network they might have to work 48+hours straight through. They might not have a need to do much more than ten hours a week most of the time though. That is not an easy schedule though it might seem to be. It plays hell with family life and you need to prove you have adequate backup to take a lengthy vacation.
I have been offered jobs with that kind of schedule for much better money, and I have turned it down every time. I am not going to be a slave to the random problems with a computer system.
Those folks have a cotar that knows exactly what they do and that cotar can shine by blowing the whistle on any abuses and get raises and promotions and cash awards, depending on the shop. He has no reason to bypass said incentives to do his job and risk his career by NOT doing his job.
I was a sys admin from 1998 - 2001. Bar none the easiest job I ever had. We employed Linux servers to do everything...thus little troubles. We had around 30 servers and supported about 240 desktops in 4 locations. Yes there were some pretty tough times when a virus/hardware problem arose - but for the most part - leisure. There were many weeks when I doubt I did 5 hours of actual work. This was when Napster was alive and well...man did I ever have a music collection.
Linux network admins do tend to have a cush job, as it is very stable, open source and you don't have to wait for some retailer patch to address issues. Nice job.
BTW, I don't mean to sound insulting when I talk about anyone's pay scale, etc. Just being honest, as I see it any way. I worked almost exactly 20 years before my disk herniated and I would gladly take a $40k a year job if I could do it any more, but pain and meds get in the way now.
I envy you still working.
Well I have circulation problems in both legs, and will get my knee replaced in a few months. I may be joining you.