No rank-and-file government job in Colorado pays better than Mike Coulter’s.
The 52-year-old Centennial resident is an air-traffic controller at Denver International Airport. He earns “a bit more” than the average annual controller salary in Colorado of $125,000.
“Between the stress of the job, the illnesses that the job creates, with the physical and mental stresses, I have no problem earning the money I make,” he said.
By law, Coulter must retire at 56, when he expects to have two boys in college.
He recalls the day in about 1990 that a DC-10 rolled off the runway at Stapleton International Airport and got stuck in the mud. No one was injured, but it caused chaos in the tower as controllers directed 20 incoming planes to other runways.
Afternoon thunderstorms in the summer can create similar migraines for controllers, he said, and each day presents challenges that test their ability to stay cool under pressure.
Coulter is proud that there have been no controller errors – such as two planes on the same runway or two aircraft passing too close to each other in the air – for three years.
“You can’t make a mistake,” he said. “There’s no .350 batting average for us.”
Coulter hired on with the Federal Aviation Administration two years after President Reagan fired 11,000 striking controllers in 1981. He made about $30,000 his first year as a controller in Walla Walla, Wash., and moved his way up to larger airports.
Today, a first-year controller makes about $16,000, he said. The highest-paid controllers in Denver make about $160,000, he said.
More important than seniority in determining controller pay is the size of the airport. The 35 tower controllers and four traffic-management coordinators at DIA, the nation’s fifth-busiest airport, are among the best-paid.
Like other federal employees, they also receive cost-of-living increases most years. A 2.5 percent increase is proposed for next year, Coulter said.
