In 2024, paid net income of up to 349 thousand in one month to retired ministers of the court benefiting from penduricalhos, according to data from .
The average remuneration of non-active magistrates over the past year is not much above the amounts they usually receive as allowances (their fixed and monthly remuneration), but the installments are quite significant depending on the month.
Six retired court ministers pocketed at least R$300,000 in October last year: Arnaldo Esteves Lima, Nefi Cordeiro, José de Castro Meira, Jorge Tadeo Flaquer Scartezzini, Eliana Calmon Alves and Assusete Dumont Reis Magalhães.
If the cut-off considers values above R$200,000, Napoleão Nunes Maia Filho and Washington Bolívar de Brito also enter the list. With the criterion of R$ 150 thousand received in one month, the number of ministers now reaches 22 in total.
At the other end of the table, the six lowest net incomes from the previous year belong to retired minister Nefi Cordeiro, referring to months other than October. The values are all identical, around R$27 thousand each.
In December, Paulo Laitano Távora’s total income was negative, and his net income was zero. This occurs as a result of the minister’s death being recorded on the regular payroll for that month, when funds received in full in November were returned.
In response, the court says that “the remuneration of active and inactive magistrates linked to the STJ is made up of allowances, vacations, Christmas bonuses and other rights provided for in the governing legislation, always complying with the parameters defined by the CNJ, as well as the application of the ceiling constitutional”.
Payroll data is contained in a panel maintained by the CNJ based on information provided by the courts themselves. The STJ did not confirm whether the numbers for 2024 were kept updated.
On Wednesday (22), the Sheet showed that, only in December 2024, , boosted by the payment of additional funds.
The logic of penduricalhos also applies to retired magistrates. These ministers receive monthly amounts equal to what their active colleagues earn (almost R$42,000 since February 2024), not counting additional benefits.
The salaries of judges outside of STJ activity received a boost from extra funds relating to occasional rights, also called occasional advantages, which cover a variety of situations and circumstances provided for by law.
According to the panel’s data, the ministers did not receive amounts in the form of bonuses or compensation, like some of their active colleagues, but were entitled to Christmas bonuses, early Christmas bonuses and retroactive payments.
Retroactive payments were mainly responsible for inflating retirees’ salaries. The judges who received the highest amounts under this heading in a month are precisely at the top of the list of those who earned the most in the entire period.
Furthermore, in October last year, when hundreds of thousands were disbursed in occasional rights, the funds were paid outside the constitutional ceiling (corresponding to R$ 44 thousand) to inactive magistrates, without any retention of value according to this criterion.
This is because in September the STJ’s board of directors approved an upward revision of the correction index for equivalence installments of the housing benefit paid to them. At the moment, payment was only possible on the following month’s payroll.
To this is added the receipt from December of resources relating to the five-year period —or ATS (Additional for Length of Service)— a heading that provides for an additional 5% for every five years of service up to a limit of 35%.
This amount, as it is considered remunerative in nature, is subject to the constitutional ceiling along with the remuneration for the reference month, but is paid in installments, little by little, and helps to cover the judges’ salaries.
