FAA Pay Scale: FV Bands, Locality Pay, and the $228K Cap

The FAA pay scale runs on its own tracks. Instead of the General Schedule grades and steps that cover most federal workers, the Federal Aviation Administration sorts jobs into six pay plans built around wide salary bands, and your earnings depend on which plan and band your position falls into, the complexity level of your facility if you’re a controller, where in the country you work, and how you perform each year. In 2026, total pay is capped at $228,000.

Why the FAA Isn’t on the General Schedule

Congress gave the FAA Administrator authority in 1996 to build a personnel system outside most of Title 5, the law that governs the rest of the civil service.¹ The agency competes with private aviation employers for controllers, safety inspectors, and engineers, and the GS structure was considered too rigid for that market. Pay is negotiated with the agency’s collective bargaining units rather than set by governmentwide tables,² which is why FAA salary ranges look different from what you’d see elsewhere in the federal government.

The Six FAA Pay Plans

Every FAA position falls under one of six plans:³

Core Compensation Plan (FV) covers most FAA employees, including administrative, professional, technical, and specialized staff. It’s the agency’s pay-for-performance backbone.
Air Traffic Compensation Plan (AT) covers air traffic control specialists and traffic management coordinators.
Air Traffic Specialized Pay Plan (ATSPP) covers air traffic managers, supervisors, operations and support staff, and flight service specialists.
Executive Compensation Plan (EV) covers officers, executives, and senior professionals in the FAA Executive System.
FG mirrors the General Schedule for salaried employees whose positions have not yet converted to Core Compensation.
FW mirrors the Federal Wage System for hourly employees.

For most job seekers, the plans that matter are the Core Compensation Plan and the two Air Traffic plans.

Core Compensation Pay Bands (FV) for 2026

The Core Compensation Plan replaces GS grades and steps with letter-designated pay bands running from A through M. Each band spans a wide salary range, and your position sits in one band based on its job track and level of responsibility.³

The 2026 base salary ranges (before locality) for the most common bands are:⁴

Band G: $52,998 to $82,154
Band H: $63,671 to $98,696
Band I: $76,585 to $118,696
Band J: $94,544 to $146,571
Band K: $111,171 to $172,257
Band L: $132,790 to $205,872
Band M: $156,392 to $211,175

Which band applies depends on your job category. The FAA groups positions into tracks such as Clerical Support, Administrative Support, Professional, and Engineering, plus specialized tracks for attorneys, investigators, aviation safety inspectors, and pilots. Each track uses a different subset of the bands. An entry-level clerical role might start at Band A; an aviation safety inspector typically enters at Band H or I.

How FV Bands Line Up With GS Grades

Because bands replaced grades, the FAA publishes conversion tables. The mapping shifts by job series, so check the table for your occupation rather than assuming a universal equivalent. As examples: for aviation safety inspector positions, FV-H corresponds roughly to GS-12 and FV-I to GS-13.⁵ In the Professional track, FV-J lines up with approximately GS-13 and FV-K with GS-14/15.⁴

You Move Through Your Band on Performance, Not Time

This is the biggest practical difference from the GS system. GS employees get step increases on a schedule as long as their performance is satisfactory. Under the Core Compensation Plan, movement through your band depends on annual performance reviews. The FAA uses two main mechanisms: the Organizational Success Increase, which reflects how the agency as a whole met its goals, and the Superior Contribution Increase, which rewards individual high performers.⁶ You have to be employed by the FAA for at least 90 calendar days during the performance cycle to be eligible for either.

Two employees in the same band doing the same job can end up on meaningfully different salaries over time. Strong performers move toward the band maximum faster. Employees already at their band maximum can still get bonuses, but not permanent base-pay increases.

Air Traffic Controller Pay by Facility Level

Controllers are paid under the AT plan, and their pay revolves around one dominant factor: the complexity level of the facility where they work. The FAA classifies air traffic control facilities from Level 4 (smaller towers) up to Level 12 (major terminal radar approach controls and en route centers).⁷

2026 base pay for certified professional controllers (before locality) at each level:⁸

Level 4: $60,547 to $81,736
Level 5: $68,721 to $92,772
Level 6: $75,939 to $102,516
Level 7: $83,912 to $113,280
Level 8: $92,723 to $125,176
Level 9: $102,456 to $138,315
Level 10: $117,827 to $159,065
Level 11: $124,007 to $167,412
Level 12: $130,212 to $175,785

The jump between Level 9 and Level 10 is the steepest in the table, which is why controllers at mid-level facilities often push to transfer to higher-level ones. New controllers start as developmentals at lower pay and work their way up in stages as they pass qualification milestones. Reaching Full Performance Level and becoming a certified professional controller is the single largest pay increase most controllers ever see.

Locality Pay Adds a Big Percentage on Top

Every figure above is base pay. Your actual salary is higher because the FAA adds a locality adjustment on top, and the percentages vary widely by geography.

For 2026, locality ranges from 17.06% for the “Rest of United States” catchall up to 46.34% for the San Francisco area.⁹ A few other 2026 rates:

New York: 37.95%
Los Angeles: 36.47%
Houston: 35.00%
Washington, D.C.: 33.94%
San Diego: 33.72%

Here’s what that does in practice. A Core Compensation employee in Band I sitting at the midpoint (roughly $97,000 base) earns about $113,600 in the Rest of United States area, but around $141,900 in San Francisco. Same job, same performance, roughly $28,000 apart on geography alone.

The $228,000 Pay Cap

However high your base and locality combine on paper, FAA compensation is capped by law at the rate for Level II of the Executive Schedule. For 2026 that ceiling is $228,000.⁴¹⁰ The cap applies to base pay plus locality combined.

It bites mostly for senior controllers at Level 12 facilities in expensive metros and for employees at the top of Bands L and M. A Level 12 controller earning $175,785 in base pay with a 46.34% San Francisco locality adjustment calculates to $257,209 on paper. The actual paycheck stops at $228,000. Everything above that is left on the table, which is one reason experienced controllers can be strategically indifferent between a top-level facility in San Francisco and one in a lower-cost area where more of the calculated pay lands in the account.

A separate aggregate limit governs total annual compensation, including bonuses, awards, and overtime. For 2026 that figure is $253,100.¹¹

Premium Pay for Nights, Sundays, and Holidays

Standard federal premium pay rules apply. FAA employees earn a night differential for work between 6:00 p.m. and 6:00 a.m. and a 25% premium for Sunday work.¹² Holiday premium pay adds your basic rate for each hour worked on a federal holiday, effectively doubling hourly pay for those hours. Overtime follows federal rules, and some positions qualify for hazardous duty pay.

For controllers, these differentials stack fast. Facilities run around the clock, and rotating shifts covering nights, weekends, and holidays are the norm. A midnight shift on a Sunday holiday can layer multiple premium categories on top of an already high base.

Recruitment and Retention Payments for Controllers

The FAA has expanded financial incentives to address a chronic controller shortage. A 2025 package added several awards for new and returning controllers:¹³

$5,000 for academy graduates who complete initial qualification training
$5,000 for new hires who complete initial qualification training
$10,000 for academy graduates assigned to one of 13 designated hard-to-staff facilities

On the retention side, certified professional controllers who are retirement-eligible but under the mandatory retirement age of 56 can receive a lump-sum payment equal to 20% of their basic pay for each year they keep working.¹³ For a senior controller with $170,000 in base pay, that’s about $34,000 a year on top of regular salary just for staying.

1
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 49 U.S. Code 40122 – Federal Aviation Administration Personnel Management System
2
Government Accountability Office. Effect of Personnel Reform on the Federal Aviation Administration’s Budget
3
Federal Aviation Administration. Pay and Benefits
4
Federal Aviation Administration. Core Compensation Plan Pay Bands
5
USAJobs. Aviation Safety Inspector (Air Carrier Flight Oversight) – USAJobs
6
Federal Aviation Administration. Acknowledgement of Ineligibility for Annual Performance Based Increases in the FAA
7
CORE Scholar. Data-Driven Staffing Recommendations for Air Traffic Control Towers
8
Federal Aviation Administration. Air Traffic Specialized Pay Plan Pay Tables
9
Federal Aviation Administration. MSS Pay Bands Locality Pay Rates 2026
10
Office of Personnel Management. Salary Table No. 2026-EX
11
Office of Personnel Management. Memo on January 2026 Pay Adjustments
12
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 5 U.S. Code 5546 – Pay for Sunday and Holiday Work
13
Federal Aviation Administration. U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy Unveils New Package to Boost Air Traffic Controller Workforce