One-fourth of the judicial workforce in Kentucky falls under the federal poverty guidelines for a family of four.
Supreme Court Chief Justice John Minton calls the broken salary structure the most pressing issue in the state’s judicial system.
Minton is asking for funding to in the next two-year state budget to bring salaries more in line with wages in the private sector and the Executive and Legislative branches of state government.
He says that a judicial brain drain is occurring in Kentucky.
"We find that our best qualified people are snatched away from us rather quickly. I also find that the greatest competitor that the judicial branch has are the other two branches of government because they pay better for the same type of job."
Minton says the situation has been worsened by years of frozen raises and the judicial branch furlough of 2012.
