Hundreds of top elected and appointed officials in Pennsylvania state government are about to receive pay raises, thanks to an automatic, annual cost-of-living adjustment.
The 1.6 percent increase announced Thursday, authorized by a 1995 law designed to counter the effect of inflation, translates into increases of more than $3,000 for some of the highest-ranking officials.
They include Gov. Tom Corbett, whose official salary will grow to nearly $191,000 when the increase takes effect Jan. 1, although a spokesman said the Republican governor, members of his Cabinet and his appointees to various boards and commissions have returned their raises since the administration took office in 2011. Corbett's net salary remains about $175,000, said Dan Egan in the governor's Office of Administration.
No one was forced to forgo a raise but, rather, Corbett “sets a tone and they follow his example,” Egan said.
The state's appellate judges are all in line for increases of more than $3,000.
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court's chief justice's salary will be $209,329 in January, about $3,300 more than retiring incumbent Ron Castille currently makes. The other justices will see their salaries increase by $3,200 to $203,408. Judges on the state's two midlevel appellate courts — the Superior Court and the Commonwealth Court — will see their salaries grow from about $189,000 to nearly $192,000.
County common pleas judges will see a nearly $2,800 increase that takes their salary to $176,572.
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The elected statewide row officers — Attorney General Kathleen Kane, Treasurer Rob McCord and Auditor General Eugene DePasquale — will receive increases of $2,500 that boost their salary to nearly $159,000.
The new pay scale for legislators, which takes effect Monday, starts at $85,356, a $1,300 increase, and escalates with positions of increasing responsibility to $133,247 for the presiding officers of the House and Senate, a $2,100 increase.
The cost-of-living adjustment is based on over-the-year changes in the federal consumer price index for Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware and Maryland for the 12 months ending in October of the previous year. The index, issued by the U.S. Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics, measures changes in the retail prices of a constant set of goods and services.
