Judicial salaries continue to see post-pandemic rebound
February 12, 2025 -- NCSC’s updated Judicial Salary Tracker, reflecting data from 56 jurisdictions as of January 1, 2025, highlights
a continuing recovery in judicial pay following stagnation during the pandemic.
The average salary increase over one year ago is nearly 5%, a significant jump from the 1-2% seen during the pandemic. Some of the largest salary boosts include:
- Puerto Rico: Between 28-42% increases for all judges—their first raise since 2004
- Kansas: Between 25-34% increases for all judges, due to recent laws linking state judicial salaries to federal judicial salaries
- New Mexico: A 25% increase for all judges
“It’s encouraging to see that five years post-pandemic, judicial salaries are on the rebound,” said Dimarie Alicea-Lozada, an NCSC Knowledge Management senior analyst and project director for the Survey of Judicial Salaries.
The most recent data set shows average increases over the last year by level:
- Chief Justice of Court of Last Resort: 3.3%
- Associate Justice of Court of Last Resort: 3.6%
- Judge of the Intermediate Appellate Court: 4.6%
- General Jurisdiction Trial Judge: 2.7%
NCSC’s salary tracker, a trusted resource for over 50 years, provides comprehensive data on judicial compensation. Courts can view their trend lines over the past decade and use additional tools to compare judicial salaries across selected states. This publicly available data promotes transparency and strengthens public trust in the judicial system.
Explore the updated data at ncsc.org/salarytracker.
Registration open for 2025 Data Specialist & Information Technology Summit
Registration is now open for NCSC’s upcoming Data Specialist and Information Technologist Summit. Join us in Austin, Texas, on March 26 and 27 for an opportunity for teams of data and IT professionals to come together and discuss important and timely topics surrounding data in state courts. Data and IT teams are encouraged to attend together to maximize the experience.
For registration details and to view the agenda, please visit the Court Statistics Project website or contact Laney Snyder at esnyder@ncsc.org.
Submissions open for the IJIS Court Integration Excellence Award
Nominations are now open for the IJIS Court Integration Excellence Award, which recognizes innovative technology solutions that enhance court operations, communication, and access to justice. Nominations can be submitted by courts, with the required approval from the court's CIO, or IJIS member companies.
Eligible solutions must have been fully implemented after August 31, 2023, and must have been operational for at least six months. The award will evaluate submissions based on scalability, innovation, measurable impacts, and maintainability.
Nominations are due on February 28, and the winner will be announced in July at the National Association for Court Management Conference. For additional information and detailed nomination guidelines, please visit the IJIS website