What judges earn would be awfully good money for a plumber, salesperson or journalist, but it's not enough to enlist the services of a corporate CEO, brain surgeon, NBA rookie or rock star. And these days, it's not a lot of money for a lawyer at a big law firm, which is what most judges could be. Partners, of course, can earn several times more. Even many law professors do better. A star federal judge with stores of wisdom and years of experience in private practice and on the bench may find that as soon as her youthful clerks leave government employ, they pull down bigger paychecks than she does.
Judges do have certain advantages.
Barring serious misdeeds, federal judges also enjoy lifetime employment and, if they stick around long enough, handsome pensions. The lure of interesting work and considerable power assures a long line of candidates for every opening. But the number of people leaving the bench also has been on the rise, with 54 district and circuit judges resigning in the 1990s, a 32 percent increase over the 1980s. Increasingly, the judiciary is most attractive to lawyers who are already wealthy or young enough not to have to pay for their children's college education. The work has gotten more demanding, too, as caseloads have grown.