Air Traffic Controllers retirement eligibility rules are:
- Complete 20 years of “Good Time” service and be at least 50 years old
- Have 25 years of service at any age
- IMPORTANT: You must have at least 20 years of special provision creditable service time to retire under the ATC Retirement rules. If you have less than 20 years of special provision time, then you fall under the standard FERS retirement rules (link them back to the FERS Annuity section)
Air Traffic Controller Mandatory Retirement
Based on the profession's highly demanding and stressful nature, Air Traffic Controllers have a mandatory retirement age of 56.
Your FERS Annuity Calculation
Multiply your High Three Salary by 1.7% of your High-3 salary for the first 20 years of service Good Time service
Multiply your High Three Salary by 1.0% for every year of service beyond 20
How Does OPM Calculate Your High-3 Salary?
Your High-3 salary is the average salary during the best 36 consecutive months of your FERS career. This is not necessarily your last three years of federal service, as Locality Pay is included in High-3 calculations while Overseas COLA is not.
You can’t lose your High-3; it is always with you, and OPM will use it to calculate your FERS Annuity.
You will be eligible for the FERS Special Retirement Supplement when you retire.
You will not have an Earnings Test until you reach your MRA.
Effective in 2024, you can retire before age 50 and have penalty-free access to your TSP if you have reached 25 years of Special Provision Service. This is an improvement for younger feds who were eligible to retire with “25 and Any Age retirement eligibility but felt forced to wait until age 50 to get access to their TSP.
Just because you can access your TSP does not mean that is a good idea. Consider speaking to one of our financial professionals to develop a prudent retirement spending plan.
