According to Chief Justice John Roberts and associate justice Antonin Scalia they are, and this would include senior federal judges earning $169,300 a year for working six-hours-a-week.

As of 2009, federal district court judges earned $169,300 a year, which amounts to about $88 per hour. After serving a mere ten (10) years on the federal bench, a judge can opt to take on senior status. A senior status judge is required to work ten (10) hours-a-week; however, according to statistics from the U.S. Courts, the average workweek is a paltry six (6) hours.

 

Over 80% of district court judges take on senior status after ten years on the bench. As of this writing there are approximately 350 senior judges. According to Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Antonin Scalia the following facts are clear and convincing evidence that these 350 senior judges are grossly underpaid and/or overworked.

 

 

Someone working at the Intel plant in Folsom, California and/or driving truck for UPS is required to work about 2,000 hours a year. Therefore, if our underpaid, overworked and underappreciated senior federal judges worked 2,000 hours at $587 an hour he/she would earn $23,480 per week; $93,920 per month and about $1.1 million per year.

 

Chief Justice John Roberts asked that Congress increase federal judge salaries by 50%. If they so acted, a senior federal judge would then realize earnings of $880 an hour; $35,200 a week; $140,800 per month, and about $1.7 million a year. With 350 senior judges, a 50% salary increase would cost the taxpayers $595 million a year; albeit they’d have to slave away for about six-hours-week.

 

Now how would you like to be punished by your employer, private or otherwise and be forced to take on senior status after ten years on the job with the caveat that you had to put in six hours a week? Wouldn’t you actually feel like you just received a 650% pay increase? Too bad! You opted to actually work for a living; therefore you’re out of luck! However, on behalf of our senior judges, I would respectfully ask that you continue to work and earn as much as possible to assure there are sufficient taxes being being collected by the federal government to pay these folks in the future.