Karen Redmond, 202-502-2600

September 20, 2006 —

Salary erosion threatens the very strength of the federal Judiciary, representatives of the Judicial Conference of the United States told Congress today. Judge D. Brock Hornby (D. Me.), chair of the Judicial Conference Committee on the Judicial Branch, and Chief Judge Philip M. Pro (D. Nev.) delivered that message before the House Committee on Government Reform Subcommittee on the Federal Workforce and Agency Organization. "Recruiting and retaining talented judges and Judiciary employees with broad experience is essential to maintaining a credible, respected Judiciary," the judges said. The subcommittee heard testimony from witnesses on executive and judicial pay in the federal government.

"The Judicial Conference believes that equitable compensation for all public servants, including high-ranking government officials such as judges, is important for the long-term good of our nation," said Judge Hornby. "In the view of the Conference, the compensation of these officials should be raised and maintained in proportion to their peers and to increases in the cost of living." The Judicial Conference is the policy-making body of the federal court system. Judge Hornby noted that not only have judges' salaries continued to lag well behind the salaries of their peers in law schools, the not-for profit sector, and the private sector, but that, due to continued salary erosion, "the Judiciary is experiencing egregious salary compression and salary inversion."

Since 1993, the compensation of federal judges has increased by 23.7 percent while the cost of living rose 31.8 percent. In contrast, the compensation of General Schedule employees rose by 57.5 percent, exclusive of within-grade increases, awards, and bonuses during the same time period. As a result, the basic pay of the career Senior Executive Service (SES) is now equivalent to the salaries of district judges. In many geographic locations, the locality-adjusted pay of nearly 200 court unit executives and their deputies now exceeds the salaries of bankruptcy and magistrate judges (currently $151,984).

The Judiciary also is at a serious disadvantage when competing for talent with executive branch agencies. Compensation levels for Judiciary executives are lower than those for executive branch executives, affecting the Judiciary's ability to recruit and retain high-level, experienced senior professionals. Judiciary executives generally receive no more than $165,200 in aggregate compensation, compared to up to $212,100 for career senior executives in the executive branch. In addition, the salaries of approximately 40 percent of senior court unit executives are capped at the Executive Schedule level III salary of $152,000. Ten percent of deputy court unit executives are capped at the same salary level.

"This narrowing of the differentials between top executives is unfair and should be fixed," said Judge Hornby. "The current salaries do not adequately compensate court unit executives and other senior judicial officials for their higher levels of leadership and scope of responsibility." Judge Hornby also pointed out that the difference in salary levels is so small that "the financial incentive for talented deputies and supervisors to aspire to positions of greater responsibility is disappearing." He urged Congress and the President to correct this compression dilemma.

"If the problem of judicial compensation is not addressed soon," Judge Hornby cautioned, "we believe the inadequate judicial salaries will negatively affect the ability of the Judiciary to attract the most qualified attorneys from all segments of the legal profession."

According to Judge Hornby, Congress could fix the Judiciary's pay problems by taking the following steps:

• by authorizing equal cost-of-living adjustments (COLAs) for the Judiciary and General Schedule employees;
• by restoring four missed COLAs for the Judiciary and Congress; and
• by raising top level salaries to alleviate pay compression and pay inversion in the judiciary.

While they urged the subcommittee to recommend that the President and Congress establish a new quadrennial salary review process, Judges Hornby and Pro also believed pay relief for judges, members of Congress and Executive Schedule officials should not be put off until such a commission is impaneled. "On behalf of the Judicial Conference," they said, "we would urge Congress to enact legislation to remedy promptly the problem of judges' and judicial executives' compensation."

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