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Q: Salary of U.S. Attorneys ( Answered 5 out of 5 stars,   3 Comments )
Question  
Subject: Salary of U.S. Attorneys
Category: Miscellaneous
Asked by: william03-ga
List Price: $10.00
Posted: 15 Aug 2004 20:58 PDT
Expires: 14 Sep 2004 20:58 PDT
Question ID: 388375
The U.S. Department of Justice employs 93 United States Attorneys
throughout the 50 states, the District of Columbia, Guam, the Marianas
Islands, Puerto Rico, and the U. S. Virgin Islands.  Each Federal
Judicial District has its own U.S. Attorney.  Each U.S. Attorney is
appointed by the President of the United States and confirmed by the
United States Senate.  After all of that, my question is:  "What is
the salary of these U.S. Attorneys?"
Answer  
Subject: Re: Salary of U.S. Attorneys
Answered By: markj-ga on 18 Aug 2004 13:46 PDT
Rated:5 out of 5 stars
 
william03 --

The salary of a U.S. Attorney is currently $136,900.

According to Section 548 of Title 28 of the U.S. Code, U.S. Attorneys
are paid at a fixed rate that can be no more than the pay of a
Presidential appointee at Level IV of the Executive Schedule.  Here is
the way that the statute reads:

"[T]he Attorney General shall fix the annual salaries of United States
attorneys, assistant United States attorneys, and attorneys appointed
under section 543 of this title at rates of compensation not in excess
of the rate of basic compensation provided for Executive Level IV of
the Executive Schedule.  .  .   ."
Cornell Law: U.S. Code: 28 USC 548
http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/28/548.html


The rate of compensation on the current Executive Schedule for a Level
IV appointee is $136,900.  Here is link to the pay rates on the
Executive Schedule:
Office of Personnel Management: Salary Table 2004-EX
http://www.opm.gov/oca/04tables/html/ex.asp


Not surprisingly, U.S. Attorneys are paid at the maximum level
authorized by Congress; that is, the Level IV basic rate of $136,900. 
 This is demonstrated by these two recent references to a U.S.
Attorney's Salary:

"His or her salary may not exceed that of the United States Attorney
for the [San Diego] district, which is currently $136,900."
National Legal Aid And Defender Association: Job Opening
http://www.nlada.org/Jobs/Job_Search_Detail?job_id=job_1001611


"Corrente, 48, of East Greenwich, is beginning a four-year term as US
attorney and will make $136,900 a year."
This quote is from a 8/13/04 Providence, RI newspaper article that
requires a paid subscription to access the text of article.  This
excerpt was contained in the first result from the following  Google
search:
"us attorney" OR united states attorney" $136,900
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&safe=off&c2coff=1&q=%22us+attorney%22+OR+%22united+states+attorney%22+%24136900



Search Strategy:

This information was surprisingly difficult to find.   I first
conducted lots of Google searches using a various combination of terms
such as "us attorney," pay, salary, received, makes, and so on. 
Although these searches ultimately did come up with a U.S. Attorney's
salary in 2001 ($118,400), they struck out completely re more current
information.

Here is just one sample of those fruitless searches:
"a us attorney" paid OR receives OR salary -assistant
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&safe=off&c2coff=1&q=%22a+us+attorney%22++paid+OR+receives+OR+salary++-assistant&btnG=Search


Taking a different tack, I guessed hat U.S. Attorneys were Level IV
appointees under the Executive Schedule, after a search based on the
old salary information came up with a government site that referred to
Level IV as the benchmark that "applies to numerous Federal
executives, including Assistant Secretaries of Cabinet departments and
members of regulatory boards and commissions" :
House Judiciary Committee
http://commdocs.house.gov/committees/judiciary/hju63849.000/hju63849_0.HTM

The search that found that site was this one:
"us attorney" $118400
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&safe=off&c2coff=1&q=%22us+attorney%22++%22%24118%2C400%22

 I then nailed down the Level IV applicability to U.S. Attorneys with
a search using the terms ""level IV" and "us attorney," which led to a
reference to that fact at this site:
H.R. 811 (Section 3 (c))
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c103:H.R.811.IH:

Finally, I found "Level IV" of the "Executive Schedule" with a simple
search using those terms, and then found the supporting references to
"136,900" with this simple search:
"us attorney" OR  "united states attorney" $136,900
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&safe=off&c2coff=1&q=%22us+attorney%22+OR+%22united+states+attorney%22+%24136900

 
I am confident that this is exactly the information you are seeking. 
If anything is unclear, please ask for clarification before rating the
answer.

mark-ga
william03-ga rated this answer:5 out of 5 stars

Comments  
Subject: Re: Salary of U.S. Attorneys
From: joey-ga on 15 Aug 2004 22:54 PDT
 
Have you tried www.salary.com to get a range for people in that role?

Given that these are public offices, their salaries are likely public
information and somewhat readily available (if not, then through FOIA
requests).  However, you may have trouble finding a Researcher willing
to invest the time necessary for only $3.  If you're genuinely
interested in having a Researcher find the salaries of these people,
you may want to consider increasing your bid.  Please check
   [http://answers.google.com/answers/help.html]
for more information on pricing guidelines.

--Joey
Subject: Re: Salary of U.S. Attorneys
From: william03-ga on 16 Aug 2004 16:13 PDT
 
I increased the bid to $10.00, which still is not that much.  The U.S.
Attorneys I ask about in my question are high level goverment
officials, whose salary should be as easy to find as, say, the U.S.
President, members of Congress, or Supreme Court Justices.  However, I
have not been able to find the information.  It should be a uniform
salary.  There should be no range.
Subject: Re: Salary of U.S. Attorneys
From: esg888-ga on 18 Aug 2004 11:26 PDT
 
I'm researching salary for an Assistant U.S. Attorney. I found a job
posting at www.attorneyjobs.com/attorneyhotjobs/pt0832.htm     This
particular job is in Birmingham, AL. The listing says, "Assistant U.S.
Attorneys' pay is administratively determined based, in part, on the
number of years of professional attorney experience. The range of
basic pay is $44,350 to $115,450 plus locality pay where authorized.

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