Leave for ALJs

I've written before about the pay disparities between federal judges and Administrative Law Judges in comparison to their private-sector counterparts. But pay isn't the only area where ALJs feel they're getting a raw deal: the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers notes that the Office of Personnel Management decided in 2008 that ALJs wouldn't accrue annual leave at the same rate as other senior-level employees. Now, Sens. Daniel Akaka and Mark Pryor have introduced a bill to let ALJs, and several other categories of judges, accrue 8 hours per pay period, just like other senior workers.