Top Pa. officials’ salaries grow with inflation
No one at the state Capitol has advocated pay raises for hundreds of Pennsylvania’s top elected and appointed officials since the last attempt in 2005, but their compensation continues to grow year after year.
A 1995 law provides automatic cost-of-living increases for the state’s judges, members of the Legislature and many top executive branch officials, including the governor and his major appointees.
The adjustments are relatively small — just 1.6 percent for 2015 — but they add up.
Since 2005, the annual increases have boosted the salaries for the governor and rank-and-file legislators by more than 22 percent.
In the judiciary, salaries for appellate judges have increased by more than 30 percent. The 2015 salary for the chief justice will be $209,000, compared with $154,000 a decade ago.
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