Which also means that senior Congressmen and Senators have the income of a household of low to mid-level bureaucrats. Horrors.
That's also one income exceeding that of two low to mid-level government bureaucrat supervisiors. Don't you think that judge's spouses are allowed to work?
Dear Non-Sequitur,
"Which also means that senior Congressmen and Senators have the income of a household of low to mid-level bureaucrats."
Yes, that's true. However, I suppose that the appeal of being a US Representative or Senator is more about the political power. As well, the perks for these folks are significantly greater than that of judges.
But, from time to time, these folks have run into a little trouble as they've tried to balance their political careers with their family life, and the ability to support those families on congressional salaries. Sen. Santorum got caught up in this as he received significant criticism for: 1) owning just a little scrap of a house back home in Pennsylvania, while living in a $700,000 house in northern Virginia, and 2) trying to use Pennsylvania's Internet charter school curriculum, in order to try to save a few bucks in educating his passel of kids.
"That's also one income exceeding that of two low to mid-level government bureaucrat supervisiors."
No. That's one income that is COMPARABLE to two low to mid-level government bureaucrat supervisors. Even that description is generous.
The first supervisory level on the GS schedule is a GS-13. This positions starts at about $80K per year, and with sufficient years in service goes up to about $103K.
A GS-15 is the last mid-level supervisory pay grade, after that, it's Senior Executive Service (SES) folks. A GS-15 gets between $110K and $140K.
Thus, the range of these two-income households would be between $183K and $280K. Federal judges get paid between $160K and $212K. And of course, there is only one federal judge who makes $212K, and only eight more make as much as $200K. Realistically, nearly all federal judges make between $165K and $175K, which is less than the least of the two-income government supervisor households, and a whole lot less than a two-income household comprising two mid-level managers.
"Don't you think that judge's spouses are allowed to work?"
Sure they are. However, their work is circumscribed by their spouses' position to a much greater degree than most folks. As well, I suspect that their professionally-required social obligations are greater than two GS-14s or GS-15s, thus more time-consuming and costlier.
sitetest