Mexico’s Supreme Court agrees to lower salaries after spat

MEXICO CITY (AP) — After a month of fighting, Mexico’s Supreme Court has bowed to austerity-minded President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador and agreed to take a 25-percent pay cut.

Lopez Obrador has railed against high-living government employees and claims justices make as much as $360,000 per year.

The court says justices make half that much, but hasn’t released the value of their benefits and bonuses.

The court claims that as an independent branch of government it isn’t bound by rules that no government employee should make more than the president.

Lopez Obrador cut his own salary by more than half to about $60,000 when he took office on Dec. 1.

The court said Tuesday its decision is “part of a new policy of austerity” after a new chief justice was elected last week.