Union and state Military Magistrates have salaries boosted by extra payments, such as additional payments due to accumulation of collections and functions, reaching an average income of R$84 thousand per month. These courts, however, maintain a volume of cases much lower than that of ordinary courts. The civil service fee is R$46.3 thousand.
In state Military Justice courts, the average remuneration was even higher in 2025, at R$98 thousand per month. The figure exceeds the salaries of judges and judges in the common state courts, who received a monthly average of R$74,000 in the same year.
In Brazil, there is the Military Justice of the Union, whose superior body is the STM (Superior Military Court), which judges military crimes committed by civilians and members of the Armed Forces, and the Military Justice in the states, which has the role of judging military police officers and military firefighters.
Only three states have a Military Justice Court: , and . The existence of these courts is provided for in the Constitution, which allows the creation of the military branch by state law, as long as the number of police and firefighters exceeds 20 thousand members. In other states, cases are heard by specialized courts in the local state judiciary.
In a note, the TJM-SP (Military Court of Justice of São Paulo) states that its payments comply with budgetary and financial conditions, supported by decisions from the (Supreme Federal Court) and the (National Council of Justice).
The TJM-MG (Military Court of Justice of Minas Gerais) states that payments comply with legislation and that amounts such as vacation compensation do not represent regular monthly remuneration for magistrates. The court also says it will achieve 100% of the productivity targets established by the CNJ.
The TJM-RS (Military Court of Justice of Rio Grande do Sul) says that the calculation of the average salary is not adequate and that the comparison with the common Justice is not relevant, as it is a specialized segment, with its own competencies. The court states that the payments are in accordance with budgetary conditions.
Contacted by email on April 17, 20 and 22, he did not respond to the report.
Salary data is present on the CNJ panel. The salaries of military magistrates are increased by benefits such as collection of collections, administrative functions, compensation for on-call and bonus leave. The latter gives the server the right to have a rest period if they have attendance, but it can be converted into payment.
A large part of the bonuses, which raise the magistrates’ salaries above the constitutional salary limit, are granted to compensate for the excess workload or length of service of members of the Judiciary. In practice, the bodies that pay the most are not necessarily the ones with the highest productivity.
Despite the high remuneration and additional payments for excess of , the state Military Justice covers only 0.004% of the cases in progress in the Judiciary, according to a CNJ report published in 2025. Due to the reduced volume of cases, the magistrates in this branch have a productivity considered lower than that of the common Justice.
While the Judiciary of the states is 2,574 cases dismissed per magistrate, the same indicator is only 96 in the state Military Justice.
Personnel expenses are responsible for 91% of the total expenditure of the state Military Justice. The percentage is slightly above the general average for the Judiciary, of 89%, and for the common state Court, of 87%.
For Rafael Alcadipani, professor of public security at FGV Eaesp, the existence of military courts in just three states is a result of the strength of corporatism in these places. In his assessment, there is no justification for a separate segment of Justice, especially due to the reduced volume of cases.
“It doesn’t make sense to have all this expense and a different structure for such a specific issue, with a lower number of cases and different productivity”, he states. “This is a privilege for people who are within this structure, defended with arguments that are not plausible.”
In the Federal Military Justice, the productivity statistics of the state branch are repeated, both for judges and ministers. According to data from the STM transparency portal, magistrates in this segment received an average income of R$72 thousand in 2025.
At the federal level, judges earned up to R$190,000 in a single month. Of the 55 active magistrates last year, 47 received at least one paycheck above R$100,000.
Just like in state courts, judges and military ministers receive high amounts of compensation, such as leave for accumulation of collections. These funds are not subject to the constitutional ceiling or income tax.
However, the productivity index is also below that of other higher courts. In the (Superior Court of Justice), for example, this indicator is 14 thousand cases downloaded per judge, while in the STM the index is only 41, according to data from the CNJ.
The military superior court has a slightly higher congestion rate than the STJ. The congestion rate measures the percentage of processes that remained unresolved at the end of a period, in relation to the total that was processed. In the STM, the percentage is 42.9%, while in the STJ the rate is 41%.
The debate on super salaries was strengthened amid the judgment on the subject in the STF. The court approved in March one of the Judiciary and the . With 18 points in total, it will be valid until Congress approves a law regulating the topic. This thesis applies only to the judiciary and prosecutors, with some implications for other legal careers such as public lawyers.
Less than a month later, the CNJ and the CNMP (National Council of) issued a resolution that resumed some of the additional provisions that had been extinguished in the thesis approved by the STF. Among them, food, health, pre-school assistance and stipends for magistrates.
