Annual Salary of an Associate Justice on the Supreme Court
- As of 2010, an associate justice of the Supreme Court received a salary of $213,900. The pay was the same for all eight associates, regardless of seniority -- so, that year, John Paul Stevens, who was retiring after 35 years on the court, made the same as Sonia Sotomayor, who was in her first year as an associate justice. Chief Justice John Roberts made $223,500. The previous year, Congress had approved a pay increase of about 2.8 percent for all nine justices.
- Supreme Court justices get pay raises one of two ways. Their base pay -- similar to other federal judges and most high-ranking federal officials except the president -- is under the supervision of the Citizens' Commission on Public Service and Compensation. The commission studies federal officials' compensation and recommends raises to the president, who, if he chooses, can send raises to Congress for approval. Once a base pay rate becomes law, justices can receive cost-of-living raises based on inflation. The percentage of their cost-of-living raises, however, can't be larger than those received by other federal workers. The 11 members of the public service commission are appointed by the president, congressional leaders, the chief justice and the head of the General Services Administration. Federal employees, lobbyists and relatives of either cannot be members.
- Supreme Court justices can go without pay raises in a year, but their salaries cannot be cut. Article III, Section 1 of the U.S. Constitution mandates that "judges, both of the supreme and inferior courts, shall ... receive for their services, a compensation, which shall not be diminished during their continuance in office." This stipulation prevents Congress from punishing judges for unpopular rulings by cutting their pay.
- Peter Lattman, a legal affairs writer for The Wall Street Journal, noted in 2007 that the Supreme Court justices -- the country's highest-ranking judges -- made less money than the average second-year lawyer working at the prominent New York law firm Cravath, Swaine & Moore. Even the chief justice that year made $13,000 less than a relative novice at Cravath.
