Spend the Gap: ATC Pay vs. Inflation

How the numbers work

• The gap compares base pay at the middle of each facility level's CPC band in 2026 with the January 2006 band grown by one of two benchmarks. The middle, halfway between the band's minimum and maximum, is closer to what most controllers are paid than the top. Both figures include average controller locality pay (26.0% in 2026). It is before taxes and leaves out premium pay and differentials (night, Sunday, holiday, and overtime)—which in practice roughly balance each other out for operational controllers.
• Controllers in Rest of U.S. locality (17.1%) earn slightly less. Mid-band pay never reaches the federal pay cap, but top-of-band Level 11–12 pay at higher-locality facilities does, and the cap hasn't kept up either: $272,056 in 2006, in today's dollars, against $228,000 now.
• Inflation (CPI) is break-even: the 2006 band adjusted with the Consumer Price Index (CPI-U), with no raise beyond inflation. Private-sector raises grows it like the Employment Cost Index for private-industry wages and salaries, measuring private-sector wage growth over time. Both use yearly averages; 2026 uses the months published so far.
• “Counting from” adds up each year's gap from that year through 2026, in 2026 dollars, as if you were at the middle of the band the whole time.
• Whatever you don't spend is shown invested: that share of each year's gap put into the TSP C Fund as it was paid, at the fund's actual yearly returns, through the end of 2026 (2026 estimated from YTD actuals).
• Retirement impact: Because basic pay sets your High-3, this pay gap also permanently suppresses your FERS retirement annuity. See the full breakdown of lifetime pension loss and career wealth divergence on 123atc.com/pay.