What air traffic controllers actually earn, by percentile
BLS tracks air traffic controller pay through its Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) program, which surveys employers directly and does not rely on self-reported figures. The most recent published data, from May 2025, put median annual pay at $148,080, or $71.19 an hour. That is nearly three times the $50,980 median BLS reports across all U.S. occupations for the same year, making air traffic control one of the highest-paying occupations tracked on this site.
The bottom 10% of air traffic controllers earned less than $78,420 in May 2025, while the top 10% earned more than $215,610. Even the bottom of that range sits above the median for most occupations on this site, including registered-nurse-adjacent and technologist roles that themselves require years of postsecondary training. The gap between the 10th percentile and the median, about $69,660, is close in dollar terms to the gap between the median and the 90th percentile, about $67,530, which is a comparatively even split. On this site's flight attendant salary guide, by contrast, the top half of the range stretches more than twice as far in dollar terms as the bottom half, a difference traceable to how each occupation's pay actually gets set.
Why the government pays so much more than everyone else
BLS breaks out May 2025 wages for air traffic controllers across two industry categories, fewer than it tracks for most occupations on this site, because the role is unusually concentrated in a single type of employer. Federal government employers, who run essentially all of the country's en route centers, terminal radar approach control facilities, and major airport towers, paid a median of $156,250. Controllers working in support activities for air transportation, a category that includes contract towers at smaller airports operated by FAA-approved private companies rather than the FAA itself, earned a median of $83,890, roughly half as much.
BLS does not explain the gap between the two categories on this page; it publishes the two medians without commentary. One plausible, unverified factor is that most air traffic controllers are federal employees paid under the FAA's own air traffic controller pay plan, a system separate from the General Schedule used by most federal civilian jobs, in which pay is tied to a facility's traffic complexity and to certification milestones a controller clears as they train up to full performance level, not simply to years of service. Contract-tower controllers, employed by private firms under FAA oversight rather than by the FAA directly, are not covered by that federal pay plan, which could account for some of the gap, but that is this article's inference, not a claim BLS itself makes.
Job outlook: growth is essentially flat
BLS projects employment of air traffic controllers to grow just 2% from 2025 to 2035, from 24,000 to 24,400 positions, a category BLS classifies as slower than the average for all occupations. That is a net increase of only 400 jobs over the entire decade. Despite that limited growth, BLS separately projects about 2,100 average annual openings for the occupation, because most openings come from replacing controllers who leave the role rather than from newly created positions.
The flat growth figure reflects how tightly the FAA controls hiring relative to a mostly fixed set of towers, centers, and approach facilities; it does not reflect declining demand for air travel. Almost all of the projected openings trace back to controllers reaching the FAA's mandatory retirement age, a structural feature unique to this occupation among the roles covered on this site.
Getting in: a narrower window than most careers, and how the pay compares
BLS lists an associate's degree as the typical entry-level education, but describes several paths in: an associate's or bachelor's degree completed through an FAA-approved Air Traffic Collegiate Training Initiative (AT-CTI) program, several years of progressively responsible work experience, or a combination of the two. Candidates must also be U.S. citizens and pass a medical evaluation, background check, and FAA preemployment testing, then complete training at the FAA Academy in Oklahoma City before being assigned to a facility as a developmental controller.
The entry window itself is unusually narrow. Under federal law (5 U.S.C. § 8335), operational controllers must generally separate from service by the end of the month in which they turn 56, and FAA hiring policy generally requires candidates to be appointed before their 31st birthday, with that cutoff extended to 35 for applicants with qualifying prior military or FAA-contract air traffic control experience. No other occupation covered on this site has both an age-based entry cutoff and a mandatory retirement age. This site's dental hygienist salary guide covers another associate's-degree occupation for comparison: dental hygienists earn a May 2024 median of $94,260, well below the controller median, with no equivalent age restriction on either end of a career. This site's flight attendant salary guide covers the other FAA-regulated occupation in this dataset; flight attendants need only a high school diploma to start, versus a controller's associate's degree and FAA Academy training, yet the top 10% of flight attendants still earn more than $136,430, above the $78,420 floor for the bottom 10% of controllers, since flight attendant pay keeps climbing with seniority for as long as the person keeps flying, with no age-based ceiling on the career itself.