Courts lag behind the SBI, NABU, and SBU in salaries — the HJC records staff outflow
Ukraine continues to face a systemic problem in the financial support of the judiciary — both in terms of salaries for court staff and judges' remuneration, which has effectively not been revised for years. This is stated in the 2025 Annual Report of the High Judicial Council.
The HJC emphasizes that the salary level of court staff remains non-competitive compared to other legal professionals, particularly in the prosecutor's office, police, SBI, NABU, SBU, and others.
As a result, courts experience staff shortages, high turnover, and difficulties filling vacancies. This directly affects the efficiency of the judicial system.
The High Judicial Council notes that a large number of courts reported in their proposals for the 2025 report about the low salary levels of court staff, especially in local general courts, unfair job classification leading to the dismissal of qualified employees, and challenges in filling vacancies.
For example, the Council of Judges of Ukraine stated that the established job classification in the judicial system and the set official salaries for specialists in areas such as HR management, IT, and financial management do not correspond to the level of professional competence, do not take into account the specifics of work in the judicial system, the need for special knowledge in the field of justice, and ensuring the administration of justice; the classification of positions for employees of court security and secret service bodies does not consider not only the required professional education and experience but also the level of responsibility and authority of these court staff members.
Judges' remuneration has effectively been "frozen" since 2020
The HJC separately draws attention to the problem of judges' remuneration, which remains tied to the calculation base established back in 2020.
Since 2021, the laws of Ukraine on the State Budget for the respective year have defined a separate subsistence minimum for able-bodied persons, which is used to determine the basic official salary of a judge — 2102 UAH (equal to the subsistence minimum for able-bodied persons set by the Law of Ukraine "On the State Budget of Ukraine for 2020" as of January 1, 2020).
In fact, amid, among other things, the full-scale war, significant inflationary processes, rising consumer prices, tariffs, and the overall increase in the cost of living, judges' remuneration remains "frozen" at the 2020 level throughout 2021–2026.
Therefore, on January 23, 2026, the Plenum of the Supreme Court decided to appeal to the Constitutional Court of Ukraine regarding the constitutionality of the provisions of the laws of Ukraine on the State Budget of Ukraine for 2022–2025, which set the subsistence minimum for able-bodied persons used to determine the basic official salary of a judge at 2102 UAH from January 1 of the respective calendar year.
Recall that the Ministry of Finance of Ukraine updated data on the salaries of judiciary employees and published data for April 2026. According to the information, the average salary in central-level judicial bodies was 62.05 thousand UAH.
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