Comment by mooreds
3 months ago
From https://www.faa.gov/jobs/career_fields/aviation_careers :
> The approximate median annual wage for air traffic control specialists is $127,805. The salaries for entry-level air traffic control specialists increase as they complete each new training phase.
Seems like reasonable pay for what is a very important job. Wouldn't object to paying much much more.
I'm an Air Traffic Controller and I'm required by the FAA to say these opinions are my own and not necessarily of the FAA.
Some fully-certified air traffic controllers cannot afford to live where they work, not to mention the trainees that have the added stress of training and making less money. At my first facility, to live within 45 minutes of work, my whole paycheck went to rent, thank goodness I had savings from my previous job.
With regards to stress, other controllers have told me about how they arrive at home after work not remembering their drive home, or driving slowly in silence. I remember trying to open my apartment door with my car fob/remote one time wondering why it wasn't working.
And that pay is on par with M-F 9-5 desk jobs that don't kill you mentally and physically. ATC is 24/7 and is notorious for leading to drinking problems, suicide, etc. Entry-level pilots for major airlines make more per hour than us, and we're pay-capped by law and will never make as much as their captains.
How much advance notice do you get of overtime requirement? Can you plan a week or month ahead? Do you have to cancel days off or vacations? (How much of those stats are available by FOIA, for each ATC location? Also, how can we see how many hires wash out/quit by year of experience, or pay grade?)
> At my first facility, to live within 45 minutes of work, my whole paycheck went to rent...
That's because your federal base payscale starts very low, $47K base for an ATC-4 in 'No locality' [1], right?
[0]: https://www.faa.gov/jobs/working_here/benefits
[1]: https://www.faa.gov/jobs/working_here/benefits/pay/atspp_pay...
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> pay-capped by law
Thanks! What an elusive bit of critical damning evidence.
Most people don't make that much and live lots of places.
Not sure that "can't afford to" is quite on the nose, but terminology aside I wouldn't object to paying them more.
How many hours per day?
How many days per week?
Paid vacations?
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I think they deserve much more, if for nothing else than because their career is age limited. And it's not like they can go work somewhere else with their career skills at that point. Pensions exist, but it's really a career you have to plan for and dedicate your life to.
That's a significant low ball estimate relative to BLS statistics[1], which pins national median annual wage (circa May 2023 dataset) at $137,380.
For the DC locality specifically, median annual wage is $170,350 with a location quotient of 3.5 (!!)[2].
To be sure, this is just base wage, which explicitly excludes things like holiday premiums, weekend premiums, overtime, shift differentials, bonuses, etc.
This also doesn't include that oh-so-sweet defined benefit pension. The most ambitious civil service employees absolutely love gaming the shit out of this by lateral transfer to a high cost of living locality (e.g. DC metro area) for the last 3 years before retiring (at age 56) and moving to relatively low cost of living areas (e.g. Florida).
[1] https://www.bls.gov/oes/2023/may/oes532021.htm
[2] The location quotient is the ratio of the area concentration of occupational employment to the national average concentration.