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State Payroll

Department of Agriculture

307 employees · NJ state government agency

Department of Agriculture runs a workforce of 307 employees, putting it among New Jersey's larger state agencies.

The most common title is Nutrition Program Specialist 1 (7% of staff), followed by Program Specialist 1 and Agricultural Products Agent 2. Median pay is $88,117, about 4% above the statewide median. About 82% of its employees are mapped to a civil service title specification, lower than most state agencies because it employs more agency-specific or unclassified roles.

Median tenure is 6.6 years, shorter than the statewide median of 9.6 years. CWA represents the largest share of its unionized workforce (about 66%).

Civil service examination announcements

1 examination announcement naming Department of Agriculture is open for filing. Who may file differs by row.

These are examinations, not job vacancies. Passing one places you on an eligible list; it is not an offer of employment, and this site does not track openings. Filing is with the Civil Service Commission, not with us.

Promotional examinations

Open only to people already holding permanent status in a qualifying title within the unit named on its row, not across Department of Agriculture. How promotional eligibility works.

TitleUnit scopeClosesStatusAnnouncement
EXECUTIVE ASSISTANT 2Promoted from: Executive Assistant 1Division of Marketing and DevelopmentOctober 21, 2026OpenPS0001A

Source: the New Jersey Civil Service Commission's own examination announcement lists, read on October 5, 2026, with each row linked to the announcement it was read from. The Commission posts promotional announcements on the 1st of each month and removes them after about three weeks, so recently closed announcements are kept here rather than dropped. Every date and every title here is the Commission's. An announcement is matched to this agency by the name it carries, exactly; where a name is ambiguous we leave it unmatched rather than guess. How this data is sourced.

About Department of Agriculture

The Department of Agriculture supports New Jersey farming and food systems. It runs plant and animal health inspection, agricultural marketing and development, farmland programs, and the state's administration of the federal child nutrition programs that fund school meals.

For a department associated with farms, the largest single title on its payroll is a nutrition program post, administering school meal funding and compliance. Agricultural products agents and plant industry inspectors handle the field inspection work, and agricultural resource specialists cover conservation and resource programs. Animal health technicians round it out. This is one of the smallest line departments in state government, and its roster is small enough that most titles hold only a handful of people.

Who works here

Ranked by headcount, these are the jobs that make up most of this agency's payroll. Follow any title through to its specification for the duties and requirements behind it.

At least 100 distinct titles appear on this agency's payroll. The 12 largest are listed above. Government Representative 1 is a catch-all title used for very different jobs across agencies, so the median pay shown against it covers a wide mix of roles and does not describe a single position.

Titles you will not find elsewhere

A useful way to read an agency is by what only it employs. 8 titles on this roster are held overwhelmingly here, including 8 that exist nowhere else in state government.

Concentration is measured against the same payroll file, comparing this agency's headcount in a title with the statewide headcount in that title.

How pay is spread

Median pay on its own hides how wide an agency's ladder is. These are the quartiles, set against the same points in the statewide distribution.

The middle half of this agency's employees earn between $69,388 and $109,543, a ratio of 1.58 between the two quartiles. State government as a whole sits at 1.81, so this agency's pay is bunched more tightly than average, which tends to happen where one or two large titles carry most of the staff.

  • Lowest recorded salary$41,336
  • Lower quartile$69,388
    statewide $62,428
  • Median salary$88,117
    statewide $84,796
  • Upper quartile$109,543
    statewide $113,264
  • Highest recorded salary$154,424

Based on 269 salaried records, with 6 statistical outliers excluded from the quartile calculation.

Union representation

Bargaining unit representation across the agency. The unit a title falls into determines which salary schedule it is paid from.

  • CWA203 employees
    66.1% of the agency
  • IFPTE30 employees
    9.8% of the agency
  • IBEW9 employees
    2.9% of the agency

Union coverage is identifiable for 79% of this agency's payroll records. The remainder are unclassified, exempt or managerial positions that sit outside a bargaining unit.

How long people stay

The length of service profile below is worth reading alongside the pay figures, because a long-tenured workforce sits higher on its step ladders.

Half of this agency's employees have been on the state payroll longer than 6.6 years, well short of the statewide median of 9.6. 42% joined within the last five years, and 22% have twenty years or more behind them.

  • Under 5 years124 employees
    41.9% of those with a hire date
  • 5 to 10 years59 employees
    19.9% of those with a hire date
  • 10 to 15 years32 employees
    10.8% of those with a hire date
  • 15 to 20 years17 employees
    5.7% of those with a hire date
  • 20 to 25 years34 employees
    11.5% of those with a hire date
  • 25 years or more30 employees
    10.1% of those with a hire date

Hire dates are present for 296 of this agency's 307 payroll records.

Overtime

9 employees here recorded overtime, 2.9% of the agency, against 31.6% across state government. Little overtime usually means salaried professional work with no shift to fill.

Together they were paid $26,873 in overtime, averaging $2,986 for each employee who earned any. Overtime is not part of the salary figures elsewhere on this page, which report base pay.

  • Employees with recorded overtime9
  • Share of the agency2.9%
  • Total overtime paid$26,873
  • Average per employee earning it$2,986

Civil service coverage

82% of this agency's payroll records carry a title that matches a published civil service specification. The rest are unclassified, exempt or agency-specific positions filled outside the competitive examination process, so the standard exam and eligible list route covers most but not all of the jobs here.

  • Records matched to a specification252
  • Records with no matching specification55
  • Distinct civil service titles on the roster100 or more

Where it sits among state agencies

By headcount this is the 22nd largest of the 39 payroll lines in New Jersey state government, holding 0.4% of the state workforce.

These are the agencies closest to it in size, which makes them the fairest comparison for pay and tenure.