Originally Posted by
kalyx522
Does anyone know for certain what kind of pension federal controllers receive after retirement?
If everything stays the same after Jan 21, 2009, you'll get a FERS retirement with special provisions for ATC, Federal Firefighters and Federal Law Enforcement.
Those provisions are 25 years of ATC service (2152 series), retirement at any age, or 20 years service and age 50. Your retirement is calculated on your highest salary over a continuous 36 months of credible service.
So, if you made 100k per annum for 36 continuous months, and worked 20 years of credible service (and age 50), you would receive an immediate pension of 1.7% per year of service (times 20 years), or 34% of 100k.
In addition, there's currently a social security payment, but it's any guess where that'll be in 20 or 30 years from now. Finally, there's a 401(k) type plan (called TSP) that matches contributions up to 5%. The max contribution this year per IRS regulation is about $15k (or 10k your tax deferred money, and 5k of the agency's using the 100k annual salary example).
You must be hired before age 31, and must retire in the month that you become 56.
the payscale says that at 100% qualified and level 11, the max pay is 98k, and the min pay is 68k. to me, it seems like they are saying that you are guaranteed 68k, but may or may never reach 98k (and you certainly wont go over that)..... 98k is a respectable sum of money, but 68k for slaving away at the busiest tracons and towers in the country? not so much.
I'm not the expert on the imposed B scale pay plan of Sept 2006, but for a good primer, try:
http://faaimposedpayrules.natca.net/
Old work rules for controllers prior to Sept 2006:
http://atpayplan.natca.net/
I think that you'll need to be on the boards for a few decades to hit that $98k number. Getting checked out may get you 68k. Yes, there is locality pay on top of the base pay.
The pay scale goes from an ATC-4 (El Monte, California tower is an ATC-5) to an ATC-12 (LA Center, SoCal approach).
Yes, there is locality pay on top of the base pay. The lowest is about 11%, the highest about 27%. Hawaii and Alaska do not get locality pay, but instead receive a 25% Cost of Living Allowance (not factored into your base pay for retirement calculations).