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Hawaii’s state judges are among the lowest paid in the nation — and their salaries won’t be improving anytime soon given legislative pay cuts that have been extended through the end of next year.

Gov. Neil Abercrombie imposed in 2009 for top legislative, executive and judicial positions. The initial cuts represented a first-time-ever salary cut for Hawaii’s approximately 80 state judges.

As a result, most of the judiciary’s more than 1,900 employees saw their pay unchanged from last year. Unionized employees saw their salaries revert back to pre-furlough levels on July 1, 2011. But that was followed by subsequent pay cuts for those represented by the Hawaii Government Employees Association and United Public Workers unions.

Under Hawaii’s , Civil Beat asked the for the names, positions and salaries of all employees. The request is part of a larger effort to make more transparent how the state is spending taxpayer money. For unionized employees, the judiciary provided Civil Beat with salary ranges.

The court system spends about of its on payroll expenses. The judiciary’s overall budget represents less than 3 percent of the state’s general-fund budget.

Highest Paid

The judiciary functions under Mark Recktenwald, chief justice of the Hawaii Supreme Court, who is the highest paid employee of the court system with an annual salary of $156,727. Recktenwald was named to the position last fall, following the mandatory retirement of Ronald Moon. (Read a related story about other highest-paid state workers.)

A Civil Beat analysis of the salary data shows that justices and judges earn the most.

• Chief Justice: $156,727
• Associate Justice, four positions: $151,118
• Chief Judge, one position: $145,532
• Associate Judge, five positions: $139,924
• Circuit Judge, 32 positions: $136,127
• District Judge, 36 positions: $128,296

But, Hawaii judges’ pay lags behind their national counterparts.

The salaries of Hawaii’s circuit judges — at $136,127 — ranks dead last among other states and the District of Columbia, according to a by the . That fifty-first lowest ranking reflects an adjustment for cost of living¹. With cost of living factored in, the report found Hawaii circuit judges earn $82,134.

In terms of raw ranking, Hawaii’s circuit judges fall in the No. 24 spot in the report. Illinois trial court judges earn the most in the nation, both in terms of raw ranking ($178,835) and with cost-of-living adjustments ($186,011), the report found.

Hawaii’s high court justices — with $151,118 salaries — rank No. 23 among the states and D.C., while California’s high court justices ranked No. 1 with salaries of $218,237.

In broader terms, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics says workers in the “judges, magistrate judges and magistrates” category earn a . (Federal district judges, whose salaries are not included in this database, earn $174,000.)

Here’s a look at the Hawaii Judiciary’s highest-paid employees. Note, the list includes 79 employees, but only six job titles, as many share the same title. View a searchable database of all judiciary employees at the end of the story.

Below is a searchable database of all judiciary employees for the 2011 and 2012 fiscal years. You can search by first and last name, department, job title, salary range and fiscal year.

Lena Tran contributed to this story.