Mexico City, June 23. Between salaries, legal and social security benefits, hazard pay
for some officials—such as the justices of the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation ( SCJN )—plus insurance and savings funds, the salary of each employee of the Federal Judicial Branch ( PJF ) will cost the public finances an average of 1,031,382 pesos this year.
Each net salary for the 55,205 positions reported by the PJF in the 2024 Federal Expenditure Budget ( PEF ) will have that cost—after deducting taxes that, in theory, return to the public treasury—only at the federal level. This in a country that ranks sixth with the lowest level of impunity in Latin America, according to a report by the Eurasia Group.
Well above average, the SCJN ministers have annual salaries that reach 3 million 793 thousand 644 pesos tax-free , and even higher are those of the members of the Federal Judiciary Council (CJF) and the magistrates of the superior chamber of the Electoral Tribunal of the Judicial Branch of the Federation (TEPJF), with 3 million 821 thousand 230 and 3 million 836 thousand 335 pesos, respectively, according to data from the PEF.
Added to these are the costs of local authorities. The courts of Chihuahua and Morelos, as well as the Judiciary of Mexico City, are the largest consumers of public funds. However, at no level are there performance indicators—such as monitoring of judges' actions—that guarantee that every peso spent on their salaries is used to deliver justice and not to harass or attack citizens.
