Pennsylvania § 1741 - Compensation of judges.

§ 1741. Compensation of judges.

(a) Base salaries.--Notwithstanding any other provision of law to the contrary:

(1) A person who is elected or appointed to a term as a justice of the Supreme Court, judge of the Superior Court, judge of the Commonwealth Court, judge of a court of common pleas, judge of the Philadelphia Municipal Court, judge of the Philadelphia Traffic Court or magisterial district judge after the effective date of this section shall receive a salary that is equal to the salary payable to persons who held that particular judicial office on the day prior to the effective date of this section, plus $1 and any applicable cost-of-living adjustment or adjustments under subsection (b).

(2) A person who serves a term as a justice of the Supreme Court, judge of the Superior Court, judge of the Commonwealth Court, judge of a court of common pleas, judge of the Philadelphia Municipal Court, judge of the Philadelphia Traffic Court or magisterial district judge on the effective date of this section shall receive a salary that is equal to the salary payable to persons holding that particular judicial office on the day prior to the effective date of this section, plus $1 and any applicable cost-of-living adjustment or adjustments under subsection (b).

(b) Cost-of-living adjustments.--

(1) For the 12-month period beginning January 1, 2008, and each January 1 thereafter, the annual salaries for persons subject to subsection (a)(1) or (2) shall be increased by the percentage change, if any, in the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) for the Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware and Maryland area for the most recent 12-month period for which figures are officially reported by the United States Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, immediately prior to the date the adjustment is due to take effect.

(2) In no event shall deflation result in a negative cost-of-living adjustment to a salary under subsection (a)(1) or (2).

(c) Limitation.--

(1) No justice of the Supreme Court shall receive any annual salary insofar as that salary is based on any increase in the base salary of a circuit court judge of the United States Court of Appeals that occurs after the effective date of this section.

(2) No judge of the Superior Court or Commonwealth Court shall receive any annual salary insofar as that salary is based on any increase in the base salary of a judge of the United States District Court that occurs after the effective date of this section.

(3) No judge of a court of common pleas or Philadelphia Municipal Court, Philadelphia Traffic Court or magisterial district judge shall receive any annual salary insofar as that annual salary is based on any increase in the base salary of a United States magistrate judge that occurs after the effective date of this section.

2020 Partial Repeal. Section 4(2) of Act 79 of 2020 provided that subsec. (b) is repealed insofar as it is inconsistent with the amendment of section 2.1 of the act of September 30, 1983, P.L.160, No.39, known as the Public Official Compensation Law.

References in Text. The Traffic Court of Philadelphia, referred to in subsecs. (a)(1) and (2) and (c), was abolished by Joint Resolution No.2 of 2016.