Are clerks included in the 2017 pay adjustment? Forum

[newlawgrad]

Saw the judiciary was approved for 2.1 percent pay increase but have no clue if clerks salaries are locked in.

[A. Nony Mouse]

Clerks are paid according to the JS payscale that governs all other judicial salaries, so I don't see why clerks would be excluded.

[clerk1251]

EDIT:

Yes, we are all included. Updated pay scales can be found here:

http://www.uscourts.gov/careers/compens ... -pay-rates

[Anonymous User]

EDIT:

Yes, we are all included. Updated pay scales can be found here:

http://www.uscourts.gov/careers/compens ... -pay-rates

Here's a link to last year's scale for comparison: http://www.ilnd.uscourts.gov/_assets/_d ... SP01_0.pdf

The 2016 rate for RUS (Rest of the United States) was 14.35% locality payment. 2017's is 15.06%. If you're at JS-11 (column 1) on the RUS table, that has changed from $59,246 to $60,210. Assuming you're a third of the way through your clerkship already, the increase will net you an extra $643 or so. After taxes that's $543 (which I'm basing on the withholding percentage from my last earnings statement).

Let's assume you spend that money exclusively on hummus. A 32 oz. tub of Sabra pine nut hummus from Costco costs $5.99 before sales tax (let's also assume you already have a Costco membership). Each state's sales tax rate is different, of course, but the national average for 2015 was 5.45%. Using that number, we get an average cost of $6.32 per tub of hummus, or about 20 cents per oz.

You can use this pay increase to purchase nearly 86 tubs of hummus, containing 2,749 individual servings of 1 oz. (or 2 tablespoons). If you eat one serving of hummus every day, this adds up to a seven and a half years' supply of hummus.

This assumes that the price of hummus stays the same over that time, though. Between inflation, fuel prices, chickpea crop yields, global demand, and several other factors, it's nearly impossible to predict with strong certainty how much hummus this raise will yield over the long run.