Congress approves pay raises for administrative judges

The Senate Monday passed a bill giving administrative law judges more frequent pay raises, sending the measure to President Clinton for his signature.

The bill, H.R. 915, gives the President the authority to adjust annual pay for more than 1,300 federal administrative law judges (ALJs). The basic pay for ALJs has been raised only three times since 1991, while other federal employees have received annual pay increases. The House passed the bill last month.

Under current law, pay for ALJs is linked to the Executive Schedule, instead of the General Schedule or the Senior Executive Service pay scale. This arrangement means that the President's annual cost-of-living adjustments for GS and SES employees does not apply to ALJs.

While SES members have received pay adjustments in four of the past five years, ALJs got a cost-of-living raise only once. In fact, the first three steps of the ALJ pay scale are now lower than the maximum rate for the highest level in the general schedule, GS-15.

H.R. 915 would fix the problem by establishing minimum and maximum salaries for ALJs. The President would have the authority to adjust pay rates within those ranges. ALJ cost-of-living adjustments would be linked to the Senior Executive Service instead of the Executive Schedule.