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SALT LAKE CITY — In his State of the Judiciary speech in January, Utah Supreme Court Chief Justice Matthew Durrant asked lawmakers for a 10% increase in pay for judges in the state.
The Legislature delivered, increasing judicial salaries by around 10% and adding around 5% to the salaries for the governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general, state auditor and state treasurer.
Lawmakers also allocated money for cost of living increases for various government staff, as well as targeted increases for employees of certain departments, John Barrand, director of the Division of Human Resource Management, told the state's Elected Officials and Judicial Compensation Commission on Monday.
Although Utah generally pays top elected officials more than the median salary of other states, Barrand said the rates are much lower than private companies would pay for similar leadership roles such as CEO.
One office that has benefited from salary increases has been that of the attorney general, according to chief of staff Ric Cantrell. Salaries for private attorneys have climbed in the state recently, leading to a decrease in job applications for the office, Cantrell said.
"People love the AG's office because we do damn good work and ... the issues are interesting, but we couldn't get people to apply anymore because we couldn't pay them anymore," he said. "You'd be a fool to work for us for $75,000 when you could work for a Salt Lake City law firm for $200,000 if you've got kids and a mortgage."
Cantrell told the commission the office had previously struggled to fill several positions, including on the Internet Crimes Against Children task force, which investigates and prosecutes people suspected of using the internet to exploit children. He said the job is high stress and requires a high level of experience, making it hard to find qualified attorneys willing to work for a government salary.
But since the salary increase, the Utah Attorney General's Office has been able to fill 24 vacancies and has seen an increase in the quality of applicants, Cantrell said.
"Anyway, we filled that position, we filled another position just like it and we're keeping our children safer in Utah because of that increase," he said.
Salaries for top elected officials
Here's a breakdown of annual salaries for top elected officials and judges in Utah in the 2024 fiscal year, according to the Division of Human Resource Management:
- Governor: $182,000, set by Legislature in appropriations act.
- Lieutenant governor: $164,610, 90% of governor's salary.
- Attorney general: $173,755, 95% of governor's salary.
- State auditor: $164,610, 90% of governor's salary.
- State treasurer: $164,610, 90% of governor's salary.
- District court judge: $203,700, set by Legislature in appropriations act.
- Juvenile court judge: $203,700, 100% of district court judge salary.
- Utah Court of Appeals judge: $213,900, 105% of district court judge salary.
- Justices of the Utah Supreme Court: $224,050, 110% of district court judge salary.
