I like that no one wants to even talk about the real reason the majority of transfers happen/are attempted. Everyone talks about "moving closer to family" or being stuck in a shitty place and sure those are real things. However, I think if we were honest about why most ERRs are put in and look at the places that most commonly are requested the problem is fairly obvious.
Places people want to get to(general list to get point across):
DEN, DFW, CLT, PHX, IAH and all the corresponding tracons and centers.
These places are high pay with low to decently moderate cost of living. People just want their pay to give them and their family the best life possible.
If we look at places people try to avoid they either have very high cost of living or low pay... or both.
There's a reason someone from a level 6 up/down has a much higher chance at putting in DEN (12) than APA (8) or BJC (7, pushing 8?) Even when they are decently in the same area. I would argue maybe DEN is even in a worse location. The same goes for PHX/P50, geographically it may be better to work at DVT,SDL,FFZ in terms of drive to work good housing nearby schedules ect... but vastly more people ERR (maybe for this one I should say hardship) to the higher level places 10 and 11 than the 8s and 9s around them.
We are talking about where we chose to work... for money. That is a major driver of our choices that everyone seems to skip over in this conversation. I'm guessing maybe becuase it seems like something that could never be changed. I'm also sure NATCA and the FAA don't even want to bring it up at all, the solutions all have someone losing... either the pay bands get squished down where higher levels get paid a little less and the smaller places get paid a little more making it a bit less of a jump up as you go. Or everyone makes the same and hard to work busy places get screwed, (level 4s would have 1000s of ERRs into them) or the FAA/Gov has to take money from other things or taxpayers to raise the wages up for the lower places making them more competitive.
I'm guessing if you paid people at 789s the same as 10 11 12s the motivation to try and jump up would vastly go away.
But it's the Gov, the real solution will not be looked at as it doesn't serve those in power at all, NATCAs power is all in the large higher paid places... they got theirs.