Senate finance committee approves pay rate for judges
The Senate Finance Committee approved a compromise pay increase for district court judges and Nevada Supreme Court justices. The judges originally asked for increases from $130,000 to $169,000 for district court judges and increases from $140,000 to $182,000 for supreme court justices. Under SB 248, if enacted, district court judges would get $160,000 and justices would get $170,000. Judges must be re-elected to receive the pay increase.
Last October I questioned whether the pay hike would result in fewer retirements as retirement pay is tied to salary for the last 36 months of service. The bottom line under the initial request, assuming that my math and understanding of the retirement system is correct, was that judges would earn $2,400 more per month by postponing their retirements. Under the amended version of SB 248, it appears that judges would earn $1,875 more per month by postponing their retirements for 36 months, or until January 2012.