How to compared a nested pillar key value in an if statement in jinja2 for saltstack - python-2.7

Question

I am working on a saltstack state with some salt wrapped in jinja2.
When I attempt to compare a value from a pillar using jinja2 it appears argument evaluates to nothing.
If I query the value using salt cli, it returns the expected value.
I expect I am referencing the value incorrectly in the if statement with jinja2.
Here is all the needed info to understand and look at this problem:
Salt Master id is salt-dev
Salt Minion id is on same instance and is salt-dev
Here is the pillar top file:
base:
'salt-dev':
- docker-daemon.docker-daemon
Here is the nested pillar file locate at /srv/pillar/docker-daemon/docker-daemon.sls
docker-daemon:
- action: start
- runlevel: enabled
Here is the output of the salt cli command returning the content of the pillar for the minion salt-dev:
# salt 'salt-dev' pillar.items
salt-dev:
----------
docker-daemon:
|_
----------
action:
start
|_
----------
runlevel:
enabled
Here is the output of the value I am using in the if statement where the value returns nothing with jinja2, but returns as expected here with cli:
# salt 'salt-dev' pillar.get docker-daemon:action
salt-dev:
start
The line of jinja2 that is incorrect is:
{% if salt['pillar.get']('docker-daemon:action') == 'start' %}
It appears: salt['pillar.get']('docker-daemon:action') returns nothing, but from cli as shown above it does return something.
Also if I add a default value, which is used in the event this arg returned nothing it also works.
An example of adding a default value is:
{% if salt['pillar.get']('docker-daemon:action', 'def_value') == 'start' %}
I have shown it in context below:
Here is the state file where the if statements are having the same issue:
{% if ( (grains['osfinger'] == 'Oracle Linux Server-6') and (grains['osarch'] == 'x86_64')) %}
sync_docker-init:
file.managed:
- name: /etc/init.d/docker
- source: salt://docker-daemon/templates/docker-init
- user: root
- group: root
- mode: 755
action_docker-init:
{% if salt['pillar.get']('docker-daemon:action') == 'start' %}
service.running:
{% endif %}
{% if salt['pillar.get']('docker-daemon:action') == 'stop' %}
service.dead:
{% endif %}
- name: docker
- require:
- pkg: install_docker-engine
- watch:
- file: sync_docker-init
{% if salt['pillar.get']('docker-daemon:runlevel') == 'enabled' %}
-- enable: True
{% endif %}
{% if salt['pillar.get']('docker-daemon:runlevel') == 'disabled' %}
-- enable: False
{% endif %}
{% else %}
event.send:
- tag: 'salt/custom/docker-init/failure'
- data: "Management of docker init failed, OS not permitted."
{% endif %}
I am quite new at the moment to salt and jinja2, so this is 101 stuff, but I would appreciate some help, I have found nothing for some hours yet.
I attempted to echo this out and it seemed I just get a blank line

Answer 1

I found the solution.
The pillar file /srv/pillar/docker-daemon/docker-daemon.sls was formed as a list instead of a map.
I changed it to this:
docker-daemon:
action: restart
runlevel: disabled