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ABA Urges Congress to Give Federal Judges a Pay Raise

February 13, 2007 — The American Bar Association's House of Delegates, which sets policy for the organization, voted on February 12 to urge Congress to give federal judges a pay raise.

The resolution, noting Chief Justice John Roberts' call for such action in his 2006 year-end report on the Judiciary, said: "The American Bar Association urges Congress to take immediate action to enact a substantial pay increase for the federal judiciary, consistent with the recent analysis by Paul Volcker, former chair of the National Commission on the Public Service."

That commission, in the resolution's words, "recognized the inadequacy of federal judicial salaries and that increases in federal judicial salaries have not even kept pace with increases in average American worker wages."

The Wall Street Journal on February 10 published an article by Volcker that said "judicial compensation has not kept pace with reasonable requirements."