Judges typically get paid less than many of the lawyers who argue in front of them, but there's still plenty of lawyers who want to take a paycut to be judges, and not much action in the other direction. Why? Because judges have really high status.
I was thinking that if the regulators are paid more, get a little more power (not sure if they already have enough power) and start to bust some bankers, get some publicity, then that might eventually lead to more status.