Top Pa. officials’ salaries grow with inflation

HARRISBURG» No one at the state Capitol has advocated pay raises for hundreds of Pennsylvania’s top elected and appointed officials since the 2005 debacle that enraged voters and ultimately cost two dozen legislators and a Supreme Court justice their seats. Yet their compensation quietly continues to grow almost every year.

A 1995 law provides automatic cost-ofliving adjustments for the state’s judges, members of the Legislature and many top executive branch officials, including the governor and his major appointees. The objective is to offset the effects of inflation, as measured by changes in the federal consumer price index.

The annual adjustments are relatively small, rarely exceeding 3 percent over the past 10 years — the 2010 adjustment was zero — but they add up.

While the 2015 adjustment announced this week will boost salaries by 1.6 percent, salaries for the governor and rankand-file legislators have increased by more than 22 percent in the decade since 2005.

The cost-of-living adjustment does not require current lawmakers to vote for its approval.

Eric Epstein, a citizen activist who helped lead the outside opposition to the pay-raise legislation in 2005, calls it “a stealth pay raise” that was approved by legislators who derive a monetary benefit from the law.

“The rest of Pennsylvania works yearround and has a median household income of $52,000,” Epstein said. “There is a big disconnect between the governed and those who govern and it is unhealthy for democracy.”

However, the escalation of top state salaries — at least in the executive and legislative branches — appears to be roughly on a par with the private sector, according to statistics provided by the state Department of Labor and Industry.

The statewide average weekly wage, which is based on reports from the vast majority of employers that pay the state unemployment compensation tax, increased by nearly 24 percent from $763 in 2005 to $944 in 2013, the most recent figures available.