Hawaii’s Chief Justice And Lawmakers Ask For Raises
Officials say higher salaries would help attract more qualified people to the jobs.
Fewer Hawaii attorneys have been applying to become judges, and Supreme Court Chief Justice Mark Recktenwald blames that troublesome trend in large part on judges’ salaries.
Recktenwald made a pitch to the state Salary Commission on Friday for higher pay for judges, saying their salaries lag too far behind the big money lawyers can make in private practice.
House Speaker Nadine Nakamura made a similar argument in her request to the commission for higher pay for members of the Hawaii Legislature. She said only about 125 people file every two years to run for the 51 state House seats.
“It tells you that this is not something people are dying to run for, and I think a big reason why is because of the pay, the low pay,” she told the salary commission.
The has begun a series of meetings to consider whether to increase pay for state judges, lawmakers and others. The commission meets every six years, and is scheduled to submit a pay proposal to the Legislature before the end of the 2025 session.
The commission, which is chaired by former Senate President Colleen Hanabusa, has the power to propose raises for the governor and lieutenant governor, state department heads and their deputies, the governor’s chief of staff and state judges and justices.
Any raises that are approved will automatically take effect unless the House and Senate both adopt a resolution declining the higher salaries. The commission’s at times, including during the pandemic.
Recktenwald said the state has about 80 judges on the bench and has been struggling to fill vacancies on some courts, including one for the chief judge on the busy Intermediate Court of Appeals. In some cases “they’re having to advertise for these positions over and over again,” he said.
The state is at a crossroads in its ability to attract and retain the best judges, he said, with state Circuit Court judges’ salaries ranking near the bottom nationwide when Hawaii’s high cost of living is taken into account.
Under the current schedule, Circuit Court judges are to be paid $217,104 in 2025. The chief justice’s salary will be $248,124.
The Legislature is in session only from January to May, but Nakamura and Senate President Ron Kouchi argued Friday that serving as a lawmaker is a full-time job. House and Senate members must manage packed schedules all year to address constituent concerns and other matters, they said.
Members of the House and Senate are paid $72,348 a year, which will increase to $74,160 in 2025 under the current pay schedule. The Senate president and House speaker are each paid $81,024, which will automatically be bumped up to $83,052 in 2025.
“What we need to do is to attract and make it so that we can make this a really a livable wage job, which it’s very difficult to do with the current salary,” Nakamura said.
Gov. Josh Green’s staff did not raise concerns about pay for state department heads on Friday.
Green’s Chief of Staff Brooke Wilson told the commission that Green’s transition team received about 400 applications for management jobs in the new administration after Green was elected in 2022.
“We were happy with the amount of interest that we got,” Wilson said. Under the current schedule, salaries for the 17 state department heads range from $179,436 to $188,400 in 2025.
The commission has not yet discussed any proposals for specific pay increases. It will meet for further discussions on state salaries on Dec. 6.
