Judges, Magistrate Judges, and Magistrates

High pay & lowrisk Lowest risk
Minimal Risk
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Occupation snapshot

What does this snowflake show?
The Snowflake is a visual summary of the five badges: Automation Risk (calculated), Risk (polled), Growth, Wages and Volume. It gives you an instant snapshot of an occupations profile. The colour of the Snowflake relates to its size. The better the occupation scores in relation to others, the larger and greener the Snowflake becomes.
JOB SCORE
7.0/10
What's this?
Job Score (higher is better):

We rate jobs using four factors. These are:

- Chance of being automated
- Job growth
- Wages
- Volume of available positions

These are some key things to think about when job hunting.

Risk & user votes

Calculated automation risk

7% (Minimal Risk)

Minimal Risk (0-20%): This occupation appears difficult to replace end-to-end with current or near-future automation, including AI software and robotics. Roles in this range usually depend on human judgement, creativity, care, leadership, specialist expertise, or adapting to messy real-world situations. AI and machines may still change parts of the work, but the occupation is likely to remain a distinct human role.

More information on what this score is, and how it is calculated is available here.

Human strengths important in this job

These are human abilities and work contexts that are important in this occupation. They may help explain why parts of the role are harder to replace end-to-end, but they are not the only inputs into the automation score.

Working directly with the public

Very important
Why this matters
The job involves face-to-face interaction with customers, clients, or guests—answering questions, handling requests, and managing service situations in real time. Roles with frequent public interaction are harder to replace end-to-end because they rely on trust, communication, and adapting to unpredictable human needs.
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Social perceptiveness

Very important
Why this matters
Noticing others’ emotions and reactions in the moment and adjusting what you say or do based on why they’re responding that way.
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Decision-making and problem solving

Very important
Why this matters
Analyze information, weigh tradeoffs, and choose the best solution—especially when situations are ambiguous, high-stakes, or have real-world consequences.
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Active learning

Very important
Why this matters
Keeps learning from new information and applying it to make better decisions now and in the future, especially when situations change.
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Negotiation

Quite important
Why this matters
Bringing people together to reconcile differences, trade off priorities, and reach agreements—work that depends on trust, persuasion, and reading the situation.
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Show 3 more strengths

Thinking creatively

Quite important
Why this matters
Coming up with original ideas and designs—creating new concepts, products, systems, or artistic work. This kind of open-ended invention and taste-based judgment is harder to automate end-to-end than routine, rule-based tasks.
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Coordinating others’ work

Quite important
Why this matters
Bringing people together, assigning tasks, and keeping a group aligned so work gets done.
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Instructing

Quite important
Why this matters
Teaching or coaching others—explaining steps, giving feedback, and adapting to different learners so they can do the work safely and correctly.
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What users think

Based on 329 votes

27% chance of full automation within the next two decades

Our visitors have voted there's a low chance this occupation will be automated. This assessment is further supported by the calculated automation risk level, which estimates 7% chance of automation.

What do you think the risk of automation is?

What is the likelihood that Judges, Magistrate Judges, and Magistrates will be replaced by robots or artificial intelligence within the next 20 years?

Sentiment

Based on user votes over time

View sentiment trend

How opinions have changed over time

Pay & outlook

Wages

Very high paid relative to other professions

In 2024, the median annual wage for Judges, Magistrate Judges, and Magistrates was $156,210 ($75 per hour).

The median annual wage for Judges, Magistrate Judges, and Magistrates was 215.6% higher than the national median annual wage, which stood at $49,500.

View wage trend

Wages over time

* Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics

Growth

Moderate growth relative to other professions

The number of 'Judges, Magistrate Judges, and Magistrates' job openings is expected to rise 2.5% by 2034

View employment trend

Total employment, and estimated job openings

* Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics for the period between 2023 and 2033
Updated projections are due 09-2025.

Volume

Lower range of job opportunities compared to other professions

As of 2024 there were 25,580 people employed as 'Judges, Magistrate Judges, and Magistrates' within the United States.

This represents around < 0.001% of the employed workforce across the country

Put another way, around 1 in 6 thousand people are employed as 'Judges, Magistrate Judges, and Magistrates'.

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What people are saying (18)

Leave a comment
LUIS FERNANDO UCLES GONZALEZ (Low)
22 May 2026 21:29
Es dificil robotizarlo porque se necesita análisis y razonamiento según el caso concreto... "It's difficult to automate because it requires analysis and reasoning depending on the specific case..."
Sinus46 (No chance)
24 Aug 2025 16:43
This would be a stark violation of due process and rule of law. No liberal democracy can allow this.
David Lee (Highly likely)
04 Nov 2024 16:32
Most of the Judges work is determining the outcome of a case, using the factual similarities with other cases verdict. This is repetitive work.
Infernus (Low)
29 Oct 2024 23:59
Because Robots cant understand and have empathy, only logic
Exactlyyyy (No chance)
01 Jul 2024 19:43
You need to have empathy and be humane in addition to understanding the law itself. I also dont think society would allow a computer to pass a verdict.
Y (Uncertain)
06 Jul 2022 02:45
I think it really just depends on our ethics. We could either go dystopic or continue to be semi-nice humans.
Rei (No chance)
20 Apr 2022 13:22
Unless AI can develop what you call "feeling", "empathy", and "decisiveness", it's quite hard to change how judges work. The job is not only about guilty or not, or who is right, but also about how the people around your place evaluate what is a crime and what is right.
I ate your burger that you left in the fridge (Uncertain)
18 Aug 2021 17:10
Honestly, I'm leaning towards no, but I'm already seeing some robot lawyers. And if lawyers are replaced, won't judges be replaced as well? But yet again, judges make laws. And it is a bit hard to imagine a robot making laws.
N (Small Chance)
28 May 2021 14:10
I don't think judges will be replaced by AI/robots. Like someone else said, judges do not only follow laws, they also help make them. Imagine a robot help make a law, it's hard to imagine for me. I also feel that sure, technology will improve later, and robots will be more like humans, and possibly be better than many of them. But I feel like judges are in an OKAY, spot.
john (Highly likely)
07 May 2021 04:18
At least a robot will be impartial and cannot be bribed
marc (Low)
28 Apr 2021 18:13
Sentencing is grounded on choice.
K (Low)
05 Sep 2020 09:11
small chance because when judges will be automated then lawyer need to be automated
Darp (No chance)
29 Jan 2020 19:48
Why are you argumenting the percentage with the grey area of the job? It's an argument for why they won't be replaced in my opinion. Just imagine a drug dealer and a person having the drug because they believe it would help their dying grandmother, how can they both serve the same sentance for possesion?
Judgemental (Highly likely)
23 Sep 2019 20:32
Judges are people who have prejudices based upon experience and are unconsciously biased. The same case tried by all judges would never produce the same outcome. It’s a flawed system, and a lottery. Good luck to those who are innocent and falsely accused.
jac
28 May 2019 22:45
judges dont just follow laws. they change laws and base decisions on moral grey area and circumstance. perhaps traffic court will have robot judges but i doubt we will ever see a robot in federal or supreme courts. mercy, compassion, and social understanding should never be expected from a machine.
Elliott (Highly likely)
21 Apr 2019 10:34
Laws are very easy to interpret, I'm very sure the Internet already has the answer to 99.9% of all questions regarding whether something should be categorized as a felony or not. The United States has made up its mind on almost everything, I don't think judges really use their imagination to do this job, they just follow instructions as guided in the rules book.That's why I think the chances are much higher than 40%. That's why I think the judges' probability of automation is closer to 95% than 40%, much like the accountants.
Legal Services (Extremely unlikely)
06 Aug 2019 10:25
Laws by definition are not very easy to interpret. Hence the necessity to have lawyers and Judges deliberate in court over the interpretation of different laws and Acts and is why, for example, in Australia we have the Acts Interpretation Act. I agree with jac. I think it's highly unlikely Judges will be replaced by robots/A.I. anytime in the near or distant future if at all not only because of the complicated nature of what their jobs entails, secondly, the human touch required to do so as jac touched upon and, thirdly, because on a deeper, more philosophical but also more tantamount level, to do so would, essentially, be surrendering our core and fundamental power as human beings to govern our own kind. If we were to hand over judiciary powers and control to A.I. we would effectively be putting mankind on the bench forever. It would tear the core fabric of our humanity and everything the human race has achieved thus far in all antiquity and hopes to achieve in all future and for those reasons and more, I believe, simply could not and would not ever happen. So, realistically, I think the automation risk level of this particular category should be reassessed to almost zero because anyone in their right mind with any semblance of logic and understanding of the justice system couldn't possibly surmise that it could realistically be awarded a percentile score that such could happen higher than that.
Louie
24 Dec 2025 08:45
So professional
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Job description

Arbitrate, advise, adjudicate, or administer justice in a court of law. May sentence defendant in criminal cases according to government statutes or sentencing guidelines. May determine liability of defendant in civil cases. May perform wedding ceremonies.

O*NET-SOC code: 23-1023.00