Federal jurors get raise

WASHINGTON — Compensation for jury service at federal courts around the country had languished 28 years without an increase, starting at a $40 daily rate that jurors in the nation’s capital recently called “abysmal,” below the federal minimum wage and a hardship.

In that same period since 1990, annual salaries for members of Congress have rocketed 80 percent, climbing to $174,000 a year from $96,600 before inflation.

But lawmakers on Friday got around to giving a pay raise to the more than 50,000 other Americans who serve as federal jurors each year, adding the hike as part of the $1.3 trillion spending bill.

Congress increased the pay by $10 a day — an amount that brings jurors closer to the federal minimum wage rate of $58 a day.

“Court officials routinely tell us how much they value our service,” said juror Elliott Negin, who led a group of 24 federal grand jurors in Washington that formally petitioned House and Senate Judiciary Committee leaders for a pay boost Nov. 27. “If the federal government truly valued our service, it wouldn’t pay us poverty-level wages.”

The jury pay increase was tucked in one paragraph of the 2,232-page bill President Donald Trump signed Friday to avert a government shutdown.

It remained unclear this week who was responsible for including the increase, which grants that 45 days after enactment, jurors will be paid $50 a day when they start service and $60 a day after completing 45 days of service — up from the $50 they now get at that mark.

Juror pay is set by statute and funded by Congress. The federal judiciary since 2016 has asked for the increase, saying higher pay would lead to fewer jurors seeking excuses from service, improving the efficiency of and empaneling more representative juries.