State-by-state tracking of judicial salaries

Explore the data

Compare judicial salaries between selected states, filter by year, and filter by position. Find more information about the data, including how adjusted salaries are calculated. 

Our methodology

Our survey has tracked judicial salary information since 1974 and provides the most recently published salary information. We biannually gather salary information for associate justices of the courts of last resort, associate judges of intermediate appellate courts, and judges of general jurisdiction trial courts.

Where possible, the salary figures are actual salaries. In jurisdictions where some judges receive supplements, the figures are the most representative available — either the base salary, the midpoint of a range between the lowest and highest supplemented salaries, or the median.

Salaries are ranked from highest to lowest, with the highest salary for each position having a rank of "1." Intermediate appellate courts exist in only 42 states. General jurisdiction judge salaries receive a cost-of-living-adjustment using the C2ER cost-of-living index. The Council for Community and Economic Research (C2ER) is the most widely accepted U.S. source for cost-of-living indices. C2ER uses a robust, multivariable model, which incorporates the costs of goods and services within a reporting jurisdiction along with seven additional variables to greatly improve predicted, statewide average C2ER factors. The seven variables are: community, population, population density, income, growth rate, utility rates, efficiency of government sector, and location of the region.