Judges are underpaid

Judges Need To Earn More? I want to be perfectly clear on this. Federal judges are, in fact, highly trained and skilled people (in theory, at least...). Given that, and the fact so few could fill these positions, I am perfectly fine with them making great gobs of money. On top of that, tying their pay to the pay rate of congressmen has got to be a conflict of interest. HOWEVER... I also believe that being a federal judge should be an honor. Federal district court judges are paid $165,200 annually; appeals court judges make $175,100; associate justices of the Supreme Court earn $203,000; the chief justice gets $212,100 One would think that, when making 165K a year, one could SOMEHOW squeek by. And I do understand that if I was offered 165K by one job and 500K by another, well... But, then again, I am not trying to become a Federal Judge. Also, remember that these people have, usually, been working for many years as high paid lawyers making that 500K a year. Exactly how much money do these people need? I'm not saying that they shouldn't get a raise, I'm just saying that the idea that only making this pittance of a salary is keeping good judges off the bench is very disturbing to me. Look at that...you can really see the gap between the rich and the middle class expanding as we speak! Tags:filthy rich federal judges