From a job posting by Social Security:
Job Title: Attorney-Examiner (General) (Administrative Appeals Judge)
SALARY RANGE: $133,515.00 to $170,400.00 / Per Year
OPEN PERIOD: Monday, March 14, 2016 to Friday, March 25, 2016 ...
DUTY LOCATIONS: 27 vacancies ...
WHO MAY APPLY: Agency Employees Only ...
And only if you've been a GS14 which no one in the field is.
ReplyDeleteThe Appeals Council staff gets another bone. DC get a little more bloated.
Perhaps someone can answer my question. If government employees who perform quasi judicial duties receive $100,000+. Where are all this money coming from to pay them. Private companies in the u.s are either going through inversion or laying off or both.
ReplyDeleteThe reason this opening is limited to agency attorneys is that the pay is WAY too low for the level of responsibility. Those of us in private practice can't afford this level of pay cut. On the other hand, the job security is a plus. Add about 50 grand and I'd be tempted.
ReplyDeleteGood question about why government lawyers who review disability claims are getting paid $170K/year plus benefits. Why call the position "administrate appeals judge" instead of its official title "attorney-examiner"? One reason must be that the agency has money to spend and choses to spend it on them rather than on the field operations. Do they put on the silly robes like the SSA aljs do at hearings?
ReplyDeleteIncreased field (operations) hires aren't going to help ODAR's backlog. Even more non-ALJs at ODAR won't really help ODAR's backlog. Aside from the infinitesimal number of decisions from the NAT, nothing goes out our doors without an ALJs signature on it.
ReplyDeleteLook at our workload--yes, we get a lot of receipts, but honestly the buildup of cases lately has centered around what we call "ALJ-controlled statuses" and the two statuses of "Ready to Schedule" and "Scheduled." I.e., work is piling up with the ALJs.
The cases are piling up in those statuses because we simply do not have enough ALJ productivity, which is largely a factor of having too few ALJs. Period.