NJ Civil Service Navigator
State Payroll

Office of Public Defender

1,317 employees · NJ state government agency

Office of Public Defender anchors a workforce of 1,317 employees, one of the biggest payrolls in state government.

The most common title is Assistant Deputy Public Defender 2 (16% of staff), followed by Assistant Deputy Public Defender 1 and Assistant Deputy Public Defender 3. Median pay is $96,280, about 14% above the statewide median.

Median tenure is 9.1 years. CWA represents the largest share of its unionized workforce (about 88%).

About Office of Public Defender

The Office of the Public Defender represents people charged with crimes who cannot afford a lawyer, a constitutional obligation the state discharges through salaried staff rather than assigned counsel alone. It also houses parental representation work and mental health advocacy.

The roster is a law office at scale. Assistant deputy public defenders at three levels do the trial work, with deputy public defenders supervising above them. The agency employs its own investigators, because defense work needs its own fact gathering rather than relying on the state's. Legal secretaries, clerk typists and senior clerks handle the case files. Overtime is close to nonexistent here, which is what a salaried professional office looks like in payroll data.

Who works here

These are the titles that carry the most people on this payroll. Each one links to its civil service specification, which sets out the duties, the minimum requirements and the salary range.

53 further titles appear on this agency's payroll, 65 in all.

Titles you will not find elsewhere

12 of this agency's titles are concentrated here rather than shared across departments, and for 12 of them every single position in the state sits on this payroll.

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

Below are the quartile boundaries for this agency's salaries, with the statewide equivalents alongside them for reference.

The middle half of this agency's employees earn between $75,296 and $133,961, a ratio of 1.78 between the two quartiles. That is about the same spread as state government as a whole (1.80).

  • Lowest recorded salary$39,681
  • Lower quartile$75,296
    statewide $62,428
  • Median salary$96,280
    statewide $84,548
  • Upper quartile$133,961
    statewide $112,646
  • Highest recorded salary$210,000

Based on 1,288 salaried records.

Union representation

Which contract covers a job decides its salary schedule, its step ladder and its grievance route. This is the union mix on this payroll.

  • CWA1,156 employees
    87.8% of the agency
  • IBEW80 employees
    6.1% of the agency
  • IFPTE5 employees
    0.4% of the agency

Union coverage is identifiable for 94% of this agency's payroll records. The remainder are unclassified, exempt or managerial positions that sit outside a bargaining unit.

How long people stay

Tenure tells you something a salary table cannot: whether this is a place people arrive at or a place they stay.

Half of this agency's employees have been on the state payroll longer than 9.1 years, well short of the statewide median of 9.6. 33% joined within the last five years, and 20% have twenty years or more behind them.

  • Under 5 years430 employees
    33.2% of those with a hire date
  • 5 to 10 years260 employees
    20.1% of those with a hire date
  • 10 to 15 years224 employees
    17.3% of those with a hire date
  • 15 to 20 years115 employees
    8.9% of those with a hire date
  • 20 to 25 years149 employees
    11.5% of those with a hire date
  • 25 years or more116 employees
    9.0% of those with a hire date

Hire dates are present for 1,294 of this agency's 1,317 payroll records.

Overtime

9 employees here recorded overtime, 0.7% of the agency, against 29.6% across state government. Little overtime usually means salaried professional work with no shift to fill.

Together they were paid $47,645 in overtime, averaging $5,294 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 agency0.7%
  • Total overtime paid$47,645
  • Average per employee earning it$5,294

Civil service coverage

96% of this agency's payroll records carry a title that matches a published civil service specification. That is a high match rate, and it means the hiring routes described elsewhere on this site apply to most jobs here: an announced examination, an eligible list, and appointment from that list.

  • Records matched to a specification1,264
  • Records with no matching specification53
  • Distinct civil service titles on the roster65

Where it sits among state agencies

By headcount this is the 13th largest of the 39 payroll lines in New Jersey state government, holding 1.8% of the state workforce.

Its nearest neighbours by headcount, for readers who want a like-for-like comparison.