Pennsylvania's governor, lawmakers and judges start out 2025 with a pay raise
Pennsylvania state lawmakers, judges and top executive branch officials will get a heftier salary increase in 2025 than the average Pennsylvanian saw over the past 12 months, under a state law that guarantees them automatic pay raises.
More than 1,300 officials — including Gov. Josh Shapiro, all 253 lawmakers and all seven state Supreme Court justices — will get a pay raise of 3.4% in 2025, under a state law that delivers automatic raises that match the federal consumer inflation figure for mid-Atlantic urban areas.
That percentage increase for state officials is about one-third higher than the 2.6% average wage increase for all private sector employees in Pennsylvania over the 12-month October-to-October period, according to federal data on hourly earnings.
The new, higher salaries are effective Jan. 1 for the executive and judicial branches and next week for lawmakers. It represents the fourth straight year that state officials saw a bigger percentage increase than private sector workers, compared with hourly earnings data.
Shapiro's salary will rise to nearly $246,000. That puts him in line to be the second-highest-paid governor in 2025, behind only New York's governor.
Lt. Gov. Austin Davis, Treasurer Stacy Garrity, Auditor General Tim DeFoor and Attorney General-elect Dave Sunday will each get a boost that puts those offices' salaries over $200,000 for the first time. The increase also applies to members of Shapiro's Cabinet, with 17 agency leaders to get paid between $176,000 and $197,000.
Supreme Court Chief Justice Debra Todd, the highest-paid judicial officeholder, will see her salary rise to nearly $270,000, while salaries for the six other high court justices will rise to $262,000. The raises also apply to 1,000 other appellate, county and magisterial district judges. The average Common Pleas Court judge will make about $227,000.
Judicial salaries in Pennsylvania ranked in the top five among states this year, according to data from the National Center for State Courts.
The salaries of the two highest-paid lawmakers — Senate President Pro Tempore Kim Ward, a Republican from Westmoreland, and House Speaker Joanna McClinton, a Democrat from Philadelphia — will rise to nearly $172,000, while the salary of a rank-and-file lawmaker will rise to just above $110,000.
Lawmakers' base salary ranked third among states this year, according to data from the National Conference of State Legislatures.
The salary increase that went into effect for this year was 3.5%, while the increase in 2023 was 7.8%, the biggest inflationary boost since the 1995 law took effect.
*This story has been updated to correct that a Common Pleas Court judge will make about $227,000, not nearly $220,000.