Wisconsin Lawyer
Vol. 80, No. 2, February 2007
In his 2006 Year-End Report on the Federal Judiciary, U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. considered the declining real pay of America's federal judges so urgent that he made it the sole topic of his remarks.
The dramatic erosion of judicial compensation will inevitably result in a decline in the quality of persons willing to accept a lifetime appointment as a federal judge.
Referencing charts prepared by the Administrative Office of the United States Courts, he noted that while the average U.S. worker's wages have risen 17.8 percent in real terms since 1969, federal judicial pay has declined 23.9 percent. Federal district judges are paid about half of what the deans and senior law professors at top schools are paid, and beginning lawyers fresh out of law school in some cities will earn more in their first year than the most experienced federal district judges. In the past six years, 38 judges have left the federal bench, including 17 in the last two years.
Wisconsin Lawyer
