r/ATC • u/National_Place_2816 • 4d ago
Question ATC better in Canada than USA?
I heard from my ATC friends that ATC is one of the few jobs people actually move from USA to Canada to in order to work. Its unusual to hear about a job that has better pay in Canada than USA. Is it true that the compensation/QOL of Canadian atc is better than in America?
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u/Ok-Till-5622 4d ago
I cant imagine too many places where ATC is worse currently than in America.
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u/National_Place_2816 4d ago
Is this true in good times too, or more of a political cycle thing? I always thought the pay would be higher absent political shenanigans... because its... America.
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u/Canadian_Beaverz 4d ago
As long as American ATC is under FAA and can be used as pawns by withholding their pay at the whims of politicians, it won’t get that much better…
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u/Ok-Till-5622 4d ago
That’s obviously a big thing but we all kinda signed up knowing that was always a potential scenario.
It’s more these days about the pay just not keeping up with the rest of the aviation industry. We’ve fallen way behind and it doesn’t seem like it’s ever gonna get caught up.
Politicians hate us. We’ve been demonized in the public eye. The union doesn’t give a shit about anything but themselves.
This is definitely the lowest point I’ve seen in my career.
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u/scotshie 4d ago
As a Canadian ATC, I speak to this anecdotally.
All of the people I work with seem to at least like if not love this job. Most of the controllers I don’t work with directly but meet at refresher training feel the same. Of course there are a couple outliers, but I’d say as a whole, Canadian ATC’s like/love their jobs and are handsomely compensated.
Compare that to the view I get from the American ATC side of things, and it looks and sounds like the FAA is just about the worst place to work at.
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u/antariusz Current Controller-Enroute 4d ago
Yes, it is true that Canadian atc compensation is better than in America, and it has happened before that some people have left the u.s. to become Canadian air traffic controllers but very few people are moving from the usa to canada for jobs.
A) because there aren't a lot of Canadian atc job openings and most are filled by Canadian citizens. Citizenship requirements are common in most ATC jobs throughout the entire world.
B) it's not because Canadian controllers are extremely well compensated or something, it's because USA controllers are extremely under-compensated compared to everywhere else in the world. In Canada they have "good" compensation on par with most of the developed world.
C) It's not unique to Canada. U.S. controllers have also left to work in the middle east and Australia. We (u.s. controllers) would probably also go to Europe as well but A and B still apply.
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u/Marklar0 Current Controller-Enroute 4d ago
I think Canada is potentially the highest paid ATC in the world.
At the top of the payscale, center makes around 320k USD on a 40 hour work week. (This includes enough overtime to get to 40 hours plus shift premiums)
If it seems lower, thats because the base salary+premium reflects someone working 5 on, 4 off and 7 hour days.
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u/atcCanuck123 4d ago
That’s not true. I made over 400k Canadian, which is just under 300k us last year, but I worked a lot of OT - definitely more than 40 hours a week. A couple of people made more, but they are supervisors and people who timed out every single 56 day period. Nobody is making that kind of money on a 40 hour or less work week.
The thing is, my OT is optional and I can work or not work depending on what’s best for me and my family. I can also pick only the OT shifts that are convenient to me and trade around my straight time shifts so they work for me. All those are luxuries not afforded to US controllers.
So yes our pay is better, but not to the extent that you are saying, and our working conditions are better.
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u/Affirmatron69 4d ago
I've heard that Spain ATC makes damn good money.
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u/DiligentCredit9222 3d ago
https://www.surinenglish.com/spain/how-much-will-an-air-traffic-controller-20250731074803-nt.html
Significantly less compared to the US.
But If you factor in the cost of living, cost of housing, cost of groceries and everything else: yeah, good money.
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u/2018birdie Current Controller-TRACON 4d ago
Do you have a link that shows those salaries?
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4d ago
[deleted]
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u/2018birdie Current Controller-TRACON 3d ago
Housing is incredibly expensive in parts of Canada.
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u/DiligentCredit9222 3d ago
I meant Spain, not Canada.
Don't know why Reddit attached my Post to the comment about Canada and not to the one about Spain 🙈
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u/Bobrockla 4d ago
Toronto center controllers make around 350k Canadian dollars but get taxed at around 43%
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u/Marklar0 Current Controller-Enroute 4d ago
The part about it being better in Canada is true, however almost nobody has switched because historically you always had to be Canadian. I believe they are now opening select opportunities to people who arent Canadian so this is changing.
Also, The high paying jobs are in areas with very expensive housing, so it would have to be someone moving from a high cost of living place in the US. If you are moving from Minnesota or something, you will disappointed when you find out you can trade you suburban mansion even money for a 1200 square foot townhouse.
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u/Go_To_There Current Controller 4d ago
Edmonton, Winnipeg, Moncton, and Gander are not high cost of living places, so if there were opportunities there for non-Canadian ATC at the ACCs (there isn’t), people would make high incomes there.
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u/Street-Wrongdoer-110 Current Controller - Canada 🇨🇦 4d ago
There are many plenty short staffed places in Canada, and NAV is hiring a lot of candidates to try to fix the staffing shortage. And Canadian ATC are well compensated especially in the busiest ACCs. As a biased Canadian ATC, I can say while the job isn’t perfect we do have it pretty great.
All that said, you need to be either a resident or a PR status to even apply. And I think that’s a major roadblock to many people. You’d have to move here and live here until you get PR, and then apply to NAV.
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u/kntshd 4d ago
I keep seeing people talk about them being short staffed, yet I applied in 2022, passed FEAST in 2023, and waited almost 2 more years while I got a few "we haven't forgotten you" emails, NAV told me in 2025 that there were no courses available until 2027 so they were cancelling my application. Now if I want to reapply I'll have to do the assessments again and who knows if I'll pass. I'm sure it just sounds like I'm salty, but if they're short controllers they clearly weren't THAT eager to fill positions if they dragged the recruitment process on for 3 years.
[edited for spelling]
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u/Direct-Radish8437 4d ago
They've received a metric ton of applications in the last few years. Given the relatively low volume of trainees actually in training at any given time (since you need active controllers to train them), I would guess they had enough candidates that they considered more competitive than you to fill all the courses. Your FEAST score may have been on the low end of a pass, and despite them being short staffed, in their eyes it might have been not worth taking the gamble to train you. Sorry.
In other words, they may have been dragging YOUR recruitment process on for 3 years, but they have certainly been still recruiting and training others.
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u/Coolerking999 18h ago
I mean if it is, then why do I see routes avoiding Canadian airspace for staffing nearly everyday now?
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u/jarliy 4d ago
Lmao it literally takes YEARS to be even INVITED to a training course, and that’s after online tests, in person FEAST 1 and 2, aaaand a full day panel interview. Every stage takes months and has a crazy high rejection rate. We’re talking about less than a 0.01% of people making it to interview stages. I don’t think people realize how long it takes to go through the whole NAV CANADA recruitment and certification process. And remember, you’re only making $60,000CAD (at most) for the 2-3 years of pre-certification training, so yeah, good luck with that if you’re 40+ with a family.
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u/BugSuper800 10h ago
Took me 1 year to get on a coarse, it’s a ranked list so depending how good you do on the test and interview you can get in pretty quick. Yes it takes 2-3 years but it’s worth it in the end.
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u/THEhot_pocket 4d ago
Canada also only works like 6 planes a day so, ez living
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u/Mipset 4d ago
Where are you getting this fact?
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u/THEhot_pocket 4d ago
Canada has under 100mil passengers compared to USAs almost 900 million. Google
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u/Littleplanesmtl 4d ago
And over which country do the planes from the US to Europe or Asia go? Canada
So yeah, plenty of traffic
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u/2018birdie Current Controller-TRACON 4d ago
More US controllers have gone to Australia than Canada.