Spending on paying salary retroactive payments to active and retired judges and judges quadrupled in five years and reached R$4.2 billion last year. From 2020 to 2025, these expenses totaled R$12.5 billion, according to a survey carried out by Sheet based on data from the (National Council of Justice). The values are adjusted for inflation.
Retroactive funds are one of the main trinkets that fatten magistrates’ paychecks. They are known among servers as “puxadinhos”.
Last Thursday (26), the minister of the (Supreme Federal Court) released, for 45 days, the payment of retroactive payments recognized administratively and already scheduled for the period.
Currently, a series of extras allow for retroactive payments. They can be given, for example, to judges and judges who did not take advantage of vacations, additional leave due to length of service or compensatory leave. The latter give the right to one day off for every three worked in cases where there is an accumulation of duties, a backlog of proceedings or overtime, during periods such as holidays and weekends, but can be converted into compensation if not taken.
Magistrates also receive retroactive funds when new provisions are authorized by the Courts or by the courts themselves, in administrative acts. Thus, judges and judges receive the additional payment for previous periods, adjusted for inflation.
In 2020, R$992.8 million in retroactive amounts were paid. The number has accelerated in the last two years.
In May 2025, the CNJ prohibited courts from authorizing new retroactive payments through administrative decisions. However, the funds that already existed until that date continue to be paid.
In most cases, authorization for retroactive payments comes from entities in the category – such as associations of judges – when they request new benefits.
In December 2025, for example, the CNJ authorized the TJ-PR (Court of Justice of Paraná) to receive retroactive funding relating to the compensatory license, one of the most common issues among the courts.
With the authorization, active and retired judges and judges at the Paraná court were able to receive retroactive amounts since 2015. The decision should also boost the paychecks of TJPR magistrates.
At the time, the CNJ stated in a note that the compensatory leave is not a “fixture”, nor a recently created benefit, but a benefit that is a consequence of a 2015 federal law to compensate for the accumulation of functions. The CNJ also stated that the TJPR followed the necessary procedures for recognizing the funds.
When contacted, the Paraná court did not respond until the publication of this report.
half of the 20 state magistrates who received the highest salaries in the country in 2025 are retired. When they become inactive, they can receive, retroactively, a series of funds relating to previous periods that had not yet been used.
According to data from the CNJ, one judge received R$1.7 million just with retroactive payments in 2025. In total, 58 magistrates received amounts above R$200,000 with funds relating to previous years.
Gilmar had decided last week that the payments would be retroactive. However, he backtracked after a warning from the AMB (Association of Brazilian Magistrates), which had stated that there was an incompatibility of deadlines between Gilmar’s decision and the minister’s injunction, which stopped all civil servants and gave 60 days for public bodies to carry out a fine-tooth comb on funds paid outside the constitutional ceiling.
According to the entity, there would be no way to immediately suspend the retroactive payments before the period set by Dino for re-examining the issues had concluded. In view of this, Gilmar and Dino set the deadline to 45 days from February 23rd — and the dean authorized, until then, the payment of retroactive payments.
Gilmar stated, however, that “only retroactive amounts may be paid administratively that were already regularly scheduled for the corresponding period, in strict compliance with the previously established schedule and the budget availability already allocated.”
The postponement of the trial caused a cold shower for civil society organizations involved with this agenda. They promise to put pressure on Congress, in the coming weeks, for the approval of a project to stop .
