The Recorder has
California State Judges to Receive 2.6% Pay Hike -- Recent salary increases negotiated by some California state workers mean statutory pay hikes for judges.
- The change will bump trial court judges’ earnings to just under $245,000. Justices on the state’s six courts of appeal will earn $280,000, while associate justices on the California Supreme Court will be paid $298,683. Chief Justice Patricia Guerrero’s salary will be adjusted to just over $313,000.
- State judicial officers’ salaries are tied by statute to the average salary increases of state employees. When bargaining units representing those state workers secure a raise, judges’ salaries automatically rise, too.
- The base figures do not include extra pay that a small number of counties offer their local trial court judges.
- A class of current and retired judicial officers sued the state in 2014, contending that it under-calculated what judges were owed, and secured $36 million in back pay. Retired Second District Court of Appeal Justice Robert Mallano led that suit and told the Metropolitan News-Enterprise in June that those concerns are percolating among judges again.
- California state judges are some of the highest paid jurists in the nation. As of July 1, trial court judges in the Golden State made more than their counterparts in every state except two—those in Illinois and the District of Columbia, according to the National Center for State Courts. When adjusted for a state’s cost of living, however, California judges’ pay ranked just 25th, the report said.
Posts
