Nation : Rehnquist Urges Judges Pay Hike
Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist urged Congress today to give the nation’s federal judges an immediate 30% pay raise.
Calling inadequate salaries “the most serious threat to the future of the judiciary,” Rehnquist sought support for legislation providing the raise and regular cost-of-living adjustments.
“This is not, in my view, fairly termed a pay raise,” Rehnquist said in a statement to the House Post Office and Civil Service Committee. “This is instead a partial recapture of the tremendous decline in purchasing power that has affected judicial salaries over the last 20 years.”
He said he recognizes that there was “widespread public opposition” to a defeated proposal for a much larger 51% pay raise for senior government officials, including members of Congress and federal judges.
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