Allegheny County paid a total of $72 million to courthouse employees in 2025, according to data provided in response to a Pittsburgh’s Public Source request. Those employees were mostly probation officers, clerks and judicial assistants.

In addition, judges in the county combined to earn almost $14 million, paid by the state.

Public Source has tracked city and county government pay data for more than a decade. It’s an effort to give our community more information about where its tax dollars are going, bring transparency to the public payroll and remind government officials that the local media and readers are paying attention.

This year, we are expanding this project with complete pay information for the Allegheny County court system, covering more than 1,000 employees in the Court of Common Pleas and Magisterial District Courts. 

The county allotted $99 million to the court system in 2026, about 8% of the county’s operating budget. More than three-quarters of that sum went to salaries and benefits for staff. A county spokesperson said more than 80% of the funding comes from the county’s general fund and the rest comes from the state and court revenue.

View the complete list of court staff and pay data for 2025 here.

The median salary among court staff last year was $58,560 — almost the same as that of county employees and city employees outside of police, fire and EMS. It’s about $8,000 above the per capita income for Allegheny County.

Unlike the city and county governments, the courthouse did not report substantial overtime pay last year. The judicial district paid out $393,607 in overtime in 2025 (about 0.5% of total pay), compared to 10% of total pay for Allegheny County and 21% for Pittsburgh.

The adult section of Family Court, which handles custody and child support cases, was the judicial district’s largest department last year with 239 employees, followed by judicial support (198) and Juvenile Court (184). 

Probation officer was the most common unique job title and carried a  median salary of about $81,000. 

Magistrate courts employed 128 people at judicial offices throughout the county, mostly clerks.

Pay for judges was not included in the data the district provided to Public Source, but their salaries are set by state law. Common Pleas judges were paid $227,411 last year and magisterial district judges were paid $113,713. That means that in Allegheny County, a combined 84 jurists earned almost $14 million. 

Judges not only earn more money than city, county and state legislators and most municipal executives, but they enjoy more job security. Common Pleas judges serve 10-year terms, renewed by retention votes, and magistrates serve six-year terms.

Charlie Wolfson is the local government reporter for Pittsburgh’s Public Source. He can be reached at charlie@publicsource.org.

This story was fact-checked by Emma Folts.

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Inside the taxpayer-funded payroll of Allegheny County’s courts

by Charlie Wolfson, Pittsburgh's Public Source
June 1, 2026

<h1>Inside the taxpayer-funded payroll of Allegheny County’s courts</h1> <p class="byline">by Charlie Wolfson, Pittsburgh's Public Source <br />June 1, 2026</p> <p>Allegheny County paid a total of $72 million to courthouse employees in 2025, according to data provided in response to a Pittsburgh’s Public Source request. Those employees were mostly probation officers, clerks and judicial assistants.</p> <p>In addition, judges in the county combined to earn almost $14 million, paid by the state.</p> <p>Public Source has tracked city and county government pay data for more than a decade. It’s an effort to give our community more information about where its tax dollars are going, bring transparency to the public payroll and remind government officials that the local media and readers are paying attention.</p> <p>This year, we are expanding this project with complete pay information for the Allegheny County court system, covering more than 1,000 employees in the Court of Common Pleas and Magisterial District Courts.&nbsp;</p> <p>The county allotted $99 million to the court system in 2026, about 8% of the county’s operating budget. More than three-quarters of that sum went to salaries and benefits for staff. A county spokesperson said more than 80% of the funding comes from the county’s general fund and the rest comes from the state and court revenue.</p> <p><a href="https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/18YcNcLL3L4rGFmu_HNNj-KYCIpO9vEc36cNPJ2FI3Uo/edit?usp=sharing">View the complete list of court staff and pay data for 2025 here</a>.</p> <p>The median salary among court staff last year was $58,560 — almost the same as that of county employees and city employees outside of police, fire and EMS. It’s about $8,000 above the per capita income for Allegheny County.</p> <p>Unlike the city and county governments, the courthouse did not report substantial overtime pay last year. The judicial district paid out $393,607 in overtime in 2025 (about 0.5% of total pay), compared to 10% of total pay for Allegheny County and 21% for Pittsburgh.</p> <div class="flourish-embed flourish-table" data-src="visualisation/29027621"><img src="https://public.flourish.studio/visualisation/29027621/thumbnail" width="100%" alt="table visualization" /></div> <p>The adult section of Family Court, which handles custody and child support cases, was the judicial district’s largest department last year with 239 employees, followed by judicial support (198) and Juvenile Court (184).&nbsp;</p> <p>Probation officer was the most common unique job title and carried a&nbsp; median salary of about $81,000.&nbsp;</p> <p>Magistrate courts employed 128 people at judicial offices throughout the county, mostly clerks.</p> <div class="flourish-embed flourish-table" data-src="visualisation/29027696"><img src="https://public.flourish.studio/visualisation/29027696/thumbnail" width="100%" alt="table visualization" /></div> <p>Pay for judges was not included in the data the district provided to Public Source, but their salaries are set by state law. Common Pleas judges were paid $227,411 last year and magisterial district judges were paid $113,713. That means that in Allegheny County, a combined 84 jurists earned almost $14 million.&nbsp;</p> <p>Judges not only earn more money than city, county and state legislators and most municipal executives, but they enjoy more job security. Common Pleas judges serve 10-year terms, renewed by retention votes, and magistrates serve six-year terms.</p> <div class="flourish-embed flourish-table" data-src="visualisation/29027947"><img src="https://public.flourish.studio/visualisation/29027947/thumbnail" width="100%" alt="table visualization" /></div> <p><em>Charlie Wolfson is the local government reporter for Pittsburgh’s Public Source. He can be reached at charlie@publicsource.org.</em></p> <p><em>This story was fact-checked by Emma Folts.</em></p> <p>This &lt;a target=&quot;_blank&quot; href=&quot;https://www.publicsource.org/allegheny-county-courts-payroll/&quot;&gt;article&lt;/a&gt; first appeared on &lt;a target=&quot;_blank&quot; href=&quot;https://www.publicsource.org&quot;&gt;Pittsburgh&#039;s Public Source&lt;/a&gt; and is republished here under a &lt;a target=&quot;_blank&quot; href=&quot;https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/&quot;&gt;Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;img src=&quot;https://i0.wp.com/www.publicsource.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/cropped-ps_circle_favicon_blue.png?resize=150%2C150&amp;amp;ssl=1&quot; style=&quot;width:1em;height:1em;margin-left:10px;&quot;&gt;</p> &lt;img id=&quot;republication-tracker-tool-source&quot; src=&quot;https://www.publicsource.org/?republication-pixel=true&amp;post=1333357&amp;amp;ga4=G-CCLXQK5C14&quot; style=&quot;width:1px;height:1px;&quot;&gt;&lt;script&gt; PARSELY = { autotrack: false, onload: function() { PARSELY.beacon.trackPageView({ url: &quot;https://www.publicsource.org/allegheny-county-courts-payroll/&quot;, urlref: window.location.href }); } } &lt;/script&gt; &lt;script id=&quot;parsely-cfg&quot; src=&quot;//cdn.parsely.com/keys/publicsource.org/p.js&quot;&gt;&lt;/script&gt;

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