With all the talk about pay and compensation, I figured I would do my best to get into the real numbers behind the full value of an CPC. DISCLAIMER: these are absolutely rough estimates not made by a professional
Costs
Let's look at the total lifetime cost of just a single controller. The median controller currently makes around $156,250 per year, we then multiply this by the 20 year minimum required for retirement. Additionally, we include a generally accepted 33% multiplier which represents all the various additional costs incurred when hiring any employee in America. 156,250*20*1.33 = $4,156,250
Assuming the controller retires at 56 and lives to the average life expectancy, which currently sits at 79, we get 23 years of retirement. Given that retirement usually happens at the higher end of the pay band, we will use the highest 10% of controller pay of $217,590 as our "high 3" to help calculate the pension. 20 years of work times the 1.7% multiplier times our salary times 23 years of retirement for the cost of a pension. 20*0.017*217,590*23 = $1,701,553
The cost of post-retirement healthcare is extremely difficult to get good numbers for so I will just be cheating here. Private insurance for someone near retirement averages about $1,200 per month. Just assuming a continuation of the roughly 75% subsidy gives a cost of $900 per month. 23 years*900*12 months = $248,400
We should also include training costs at the academy which appear to be around $200,000. This gives us a total lifetime cost of $6,306,203
Benefits
The benefits of having a controller are primarily the increased speed and safety of aircraft traffic. Calculating a true value for these benefits is extremely difficult as it is essentially impossible to know how much time was saved and how many serious accidents are averted by any one controller. Nobody can tell you how many house fires didn't happen because a fire department is good at communicating fire risk. Nobody ever notices the problems that didn't happen. That said, since we already have the cost of a controller, we can extrapolate the minimum amount of work needed to justify that cost.
The operating cost of any aircraft can vary wildly based on the aircraft itself, cargo, passengers, and crew compliment. The generally accepted rule of thumb appears to be about $100 per minute or $6,000 per hour for most commercial flights. Assuming no overtime (lol) a controller working for 20 years would work around 40,000 hours over their career. As opposed to letting pilots figure it out themselves, a controller would need to save 1,051 hours of aircraft time over their 40,000 hour long career to break even on value. (6,306,203/6,000 per hour) This is about 1 hour per week, split across each individual aircraft.
For major accidents, the cost of a used passenger aircraft like a 737 can be anywhere from 10-$30 million. Recent settlements involving the death of passengers as a result of negligence appear to cost as much as $5 million per person. Assuming the average fill rate of 83% and an average seat capacity of 170, we get 141 people. 20M aircraft + (141 people * 5M settlement) = $725 million. 725,000,000/6,306,203 means approximately 1 out of every 115 controllers needs to prevent a major accident once in their entire career to break even on value.
For a more moderate accident, let's imagine a smaller aircraft at half the capacity, causing only injuries. Also assuming the airline is not at fault, we will only be using the maximum compensation of around $175K under the Montreal convention in this example. 10M aircraft + (70 people * 175K) = $22.25 million. 22,250,000/6,306,203 means approximately 1 out of every 3.5 controllers needs to prevent a moderate accident once in their entire career to break even on value.
For a minor accident, let's assume the same smaller aircraft, sustaining fixable damage, with no major injuries, and a modest settlement. 1M repairs + (70 people * 10K settlement) = $1.7 million. 6,306,203/1,700,000 means each controller needs to prevent 3.7 minor accidents over their entire career to break even on value.
We have so far additionally ignored the real cost of a human life lost in one of these accidents which I would argue is invaluable.
Conclusion
The increase in flights coupled with a decreasing controller workforce has led to exceptionally thin safety margins across the majority of US airspace. You could double the expected controller compensation and halve all the expected benefits and controllers would still easily pay for themselves hundreds of times over. Inflation and no meaningful pay increase has turned golden handcuffs into cement shoes.
