Its one thing to beef about your pay; but its another to have critical data on your side.
Such is the case for those who work in our local and state court systems.
For the past several years, our judges have stated that they and their support staff are not only underpaid but more importantly, are falling desperately behind their counterparts elsewhere.
The danger? We are losing valuable talent.
In his annual address earlier this month, Kansas Supreme Court Chief Justice Lawton Nuss stated:
* With an annual salary of $125,000 per year, Kansas district court judges earn $32,000 less than the national average, putting them dead last among their peers nationwide.
* The states investment in the judicial branchs 1,600-plus employees, including its 267 municipal and district court judges, is less than 1 percent of the states budget.
And thats after two consecutive years of (minimal) pay raises.
In his talk, Nuss requested the legislature appropriate an additional $22 million for the judicial branch for next year.
THE COURTS are in a somewhat tricky position in that it is Kansas legislators who determine their budgets.
In normal times, that has not been a problem. But ever since the Kansas Supreme Court has mandated legislators fund public schools in an adequate and equitable manner, its purse strings have been pulled tight.
So perhaps it was no surprise that Senate President Susan Wagle skipped Nusss talk an affront to a long-standing tradition between the branches of government.
TO BEEF up their case, Kansas courts in 2016 requested the National Center for State Courts to review their wages and job classifications.
In the study, the NCSC compared apples to apples, ensuring that compensation rates equalled job responsibilities.
To determine pay grade recommendations, officials considered the wages determined by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, those paid in several Kansas communities, as well as those paid by the judicial departments in Colorado, Iowa and Missouri.
For communities whose wage averages were either higher or lower than reviewed in the study, a third party equalizer, Bank Rate, was used to account for the differences and put them more in line with the local demographic.
Through all of these filters, Kansas paints a sorry picture.
The study showed that on average, salaries for the Kansas Judicial Branch are 14-15 percent below market, with an average salary of $36,251.
For those who work as trial court clerks, court services officers, court reporters and other similar jobs, their starting salaries were below the Federal Poverty Guidelines for a family of four, or $24,300; as much as 18 percent below their peers elsewhere.
One result is that about 32 percent of these employees have outside employment with another 10 percent seeking a second job to make ends meet.
