Salary Guide: Guide for Computing County Official Salaries

The "Computing County Official Salaries for 2025" guidebook is now available. ACCG publishes this guidebook annually to assist counties in calculating salaries (as of January 1, 2025) of certain county officials, as well as state officials who receive supplements to their salaries from the county. The procedure outlined in this guidebook has been reviewed and approved by the Constitutional Officers Association of Georgia (COAG), the Magistrate Council of Georgia, and ACCG. Important highlights in which counties may be most interested are shown below:

• The State of Georgia’s Budget for Fiscal Year 2025 includes a cost-of-living adjustment for most state employees in the amount of 4% or $3,000, whichever is less. As in previous years, this state COLA has financial impacts on counties and county officials: state law generally provides that counties are obligated to pay the same COLAs to various elected officials: county commissioners, sheriffs, superior court clerks, tax commissioners, probate judges, magistrate judges, and most coroners (those in counties under 35,000 in population) starting January 1, 2025.

• However, some counties have county-specific state laws (“local acts”) tying the compensation of some county officials to the total compensation of their superior court judges. The new FY25 state budget also awarded superior court judges the same COLA (state paid) in the amount of 4% or $3,000, whichever is less. If your county has such a local act, the obligation to increase the pay of those other officials may begin July 1, 2024, which is the date the new COLA will begin to be paid by the state to superior court judges. ACCG strongly recommends that county officials consult with the county attorney regarding the correct commencement date of pay increases for officials in your county.

Counties can still access the 2024 Salary Guide for County Officials online. Use this guidebook to assist in the calculation of salaries (as of January 1, 2024) for county commissioners, coroners, magistrates, probate judges, sheriffs, superior court clerks, tax commissioners, and other officials. Please review the general principles on pages 4 and 5 for an overview of the process.

If you have any questions about how salaries should be calculated, please contact your county attorney.