Serving the public can appear lucrative when compared to the average worker but in many professional fields the pay is not competitive with private sector and/or state governmental counter parts. Over the past few years federal judges have been leaving federal positions for state or private sector positions with an increase in pay.
Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts has identified the failure to pay judges enough to keep them on the job and lure talented lawyers from private practice to the federal bench as an emerging crisis.
According to James C. Duff, director of the Administrative Office of
the U.S Courts, "Federal judges are currently under-compensated because
Congress has repeatedly failed to adjust judicial salaries in response
to inflation." The last time judges received a substantial pay raise was in 1991 with
recurring increases designed to keep pace with inflation in most years
since then.
He acknowledged that the current economic turmoil makes
the judges' case harder to sell since federal trial judges are paid $169,300
a year with a lifetime job security and can retire at full salary at
age 65 if they have 15 years in the job. Appellate judges make more,
ranging up to Roberts' salary of $217,400.
To put things in perspective, the median annual household income is
2007 was $50,233, according to the Census Bureau. The real median
earnings of individuals who worked full time, year-round was between $43,460 to
$45,113 for men and $33,437 to $35,102 for women.
While the salaries of federal judges are much higher than the median, they are much smaller than what judges' peers make in private practice. For example, Attorney General-designate Eric Holder earned $2.1 million this year as a partner at the law firm of Covington & Burling and retired Attorney General Michael Mukasey made nearly $2 million in 21 months at a New York law firm.
So is it right for judges with better job security than almost anyone and good retirement pay making between $170,000 or $180,000 to want raises?
Related Stories:
[+] Congress gives itself another raise
[+] GS-15 federal workers losing retirement pay due to pay cap
[+] Need to know: 3.9 percent pay raise effective first pay period in 2009
[+] Senior executives express dissatisfaction with pay