A coalition of California judges argue the state has been stiffing them for years by mishandling the formula it uses to calculate their wage increases.
In a new lawsuit, one such judge is demanding that the state redo the math going back almost a decade to include information that likely would have resulted in bigger raises.
The Alliance of California Judges says the state owes them larger pay raises, which they claim are not keeping up with inflation.
CalMatters reports the formula at the heart of the lawsuit sounds simple. State law requires that judges receive annual raises based on the "average percentage salary increase" given to other California state employees. This year, judges received more than a two-and-a-half percent wage increase, down from more than three percent in the previous year.
But the state has fouled up the math before. The earlier case filed by a retired appeals court justice, Robert Mallano, turned on a mistake the state made during the Great Recession.
That’s when it had withheld judges' raises even though certain civil servants had received small pay increases. The state, ordered to recalculate judges' wages, handed them $15,000 checks for missed pay.
This time, the complaint by Sacramento Superior Court Judge Maryanne Gilliard draws attention to one way Govs. Jerry Brown and Gavin Newsom raised pay for public employees without giving them substantial general salary increases. It alleges the state illegally shorted the judges by not counting some of the pay-raising perks that went into recent contracts.
Both governors signed contracts that included general salary increases of up to four percent that benefited all workers represented by a given union, plus more generous targeted raises for specific groups of employees.
The judges allege the state has been counting only the general salary increases in the formula it uses to set judicial raises -- while excluding the more targeted salary adjustments.
The base pay for California judges is the third highest in the nation, according to the National Center for State Courts. But when the cost of living is factored in, California is in the middle of the pack at 25th.
