Bayonne
Municipality · Hudson County
646 people are enrolled in a State pension fund through Bayonne, reporting a median pensionable salary of $87,546.
Bayonne is a confirmed New Jersey civil service jurisdiction — a municipality in Hudson County that has adopted Title 11A of the New Jersey Statutes to govern how it hires, classifies, and promotes employees.
Hudson County has 40 confirmed civil service jurisdictions in total, including this one.
About municipalities in New Jersey
New Jersey has 564 municipalities, and each one decides for itself whether to operate under Title 11A. A municipality that adopts civil service hires and promotes employees through competitive exams administered by the state; one that hasn't sets its own local hiring rules instead.
Bayonne Police Department — discipline and transparency records via PoliceTransparencyNJ
See all 40 civil service jurisdictions in Hudson County, or browse the full employer directory.
Who is on the pension rolls at Bayonne
646 people are enrolled in a State-administered pension fund through Bayonne. That is a count of active memberships reported by the employer, not a payroll headcount: anyone not enrolled in one of these funds does not appear in this data at all, and no separate headcount for a New Jersey local employer is published anywhere we can check against.
| Fund | Name | Members | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| PFRS | Police and Firemen's Retirement System | 366 | 57% |
| PERS | Public Employees' Retirement System | 280 | 43% |
Within PFRS, the fund records 192 police officers and 174 firefighters. PFRS enrolment is the only occupational detail this dataset carries; it lists no job titles, so nothing here says which civil service titles Bayonne actually appoints.
4 of these members hold a second public job in New Jersey: their reported salary across all public employers exceeds what they are paid here. Shared and part-time appointments are common in local government, and the salary figures below count only the portion earned at Bayonne.
Pensionable salary at Bayonne
Half of the pension-enrolled workforce at Bayonne reports a pensionable salary above $87,546 and half below, across 646 members with a reported figure.
| Point in the distribution | Pensionable salary |
|---|---|
| 10th percentile | $45,336 |
| 25th percentile | $61,065 |
| Median | $87,546 |
| 75th percentile | $122,681 |
| 90th percentile | $155,578 |
The range runs from the 10th to the 90th percentile because the extremes are not informative: the lowest reported figures belong to part-time and partial-year members, whose credited salary is a fraction of a full-time equivalent.
Among the 15 civil service jurisdictions in the same county with pension data, that median sits at the 87th percentile, above the county's midpoint of $66,228. Against the 194 bodies of the same kind statewide, it sits at the 85th percentile.
These figures are pensionable salary reported to the NJ Division of Pensions and Benefits for the four most recent quarters, not total pay and not take-home pay. Snapshot of March 31, 2026. How we compile this.
How long people stay at Bayonne
The median enrolled member at Bayonne has 8.7 years of credited service, with the middle half falling between 4 and 19 years. 24% have passed twenty years, which matters locally because retirement eligibility and the pension formula both turn on service credit.
| Credited service | Members | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Under 5 years | 200 | 31% |
| 5 to 10 years | 152 | 24% |
| 10 to 15 years | 97 | 15% |
| 15 to 20 years | 43 | 7% |
| 20 to 25 years | 67 | 10% |
| 25 years or more | 87 | 13% |
Membership tier records which pension rules a member was hired under, so the mix is a rough picture of how recently a workforce turned over. At Bayonne, 25% sit in the most recently hired cohort.
| Membership tier | Members | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Tier 1 (longest-serving cohort) | 183 | 28% |
| Tier 2 | 2 | 0% |
| Tier 3 | 293 | 45% |
| Tier 4 | 4 | 1% |
| Tier 5 (most recently hired cohort) | 164 | 25% |
Other public employers in Bayonne
The pension system reports these separate public employers in Bayonne. Each is its own employer for pension purposes, and only some are civil service jurisdictions — school boards, charter schools and parking authorities are ordinary public employers that were never part of Title 11A. Names link only where the body appears in this directory.
| Employer | Enrolled members |
|---|---|
| BAYONNE BOARD OF ED | 1,658 |
| BAYONNE CITY (this page) | 646 |
| BAYONNE HOUSING AUTHORITY | 59 |
What civil service status means for jobs at Bayonne
In a municipality that operates under Title 11A, the mayor, administrator or governing body still decides which positions exist and who gets appointed to them. What changes is the route in. Most permanent positions have to be filled from a list of candidates who took and passed an open competitive examination.
That flips the usual job hunt around. For a competitive title you announce yourself by filing for the exam when it is posted, not by dropping a resume at the municipal building. Municipal employers also run the widest mix of titles in this directory: police and fire, public works and sanitation, code enforcement and construction inspection, tax collection, clerical support, recreation, and dispatch.
Not every position at a civil service employer is competitive. The classified service is divided into competitive, noncompetitive and labor titles, and above that sits the unclassified service, which covers department heads, confidential aides and similar positions filled without an examination. Which division a title sits in decides how you get it, so read the specification before assuming there is an exam.
Passing an examination puts you on an eligible list, not into a job. Lists are promulgated for a fixed life, commonly three years, and the Commission certifies names from the live list whenever an employer reports a vacancy. If no list exists for a title when a vacancy opens, the employer has to ask for an examination to be held.
Civil service employers in Bayonne
Bayonne City appears in the Commission's listing in its own right, so the city government is the appointing authority for its own classified staff.
Two other Bayonne bodies hold civil service status separately from the city government, listed below. Each runs its own examinations and keeps its own eligible lists, so Bayonne is really three employers rather than one.
- Bayonne Housing Authority, housing authority
- Bayonne Library, public library
Civil service titles used by New Jersey municipalities
Real classifications that New Jersey municipalities draw on, each linked to its official specification: the definition of the work, the requirements, and any licence the title depends on. A sample of the system rather than a roster or a list of openings.
Civil service coverage across Hudson County
Hudson County holds 40 confirmed jurisdictions in the Commission's listing: 15 municipal departments, 9 municipalities, 8 public libraries, 2 housing authorities, 2 school districts, 1 county government, 1 fire district, 1 redevelopment agency, and 1 municipal utilities authority.
9 of the county's 12 municipalities are among them.
Hudson County is a jurisdiction too, though a county's decision does not bind the towns, authorities, libraries or districts inside it.
Also in the directory: Kearny, North Bergen Library, North Bergen Municipal Utilities Authority, North Bergen Parks and Public Property, North Bergen Public Affairs, North Bergen Public Safety, North Bergen Public Works, North Bergen Revenue and Finance. See all 40 in Hudson County.
Common questions about Bayonne
Is Bayonne a civil service employer?
Yes. Bayonne appears in the New Jersey Civil Service Commission's listing of local civil service system jurisdictions as of July 2024, which makes it an appointing authority under Title 11A. Permanent appointments to competitive titles there come from eligible lists the Commission certifies, rather than from purely local hiring.
Does civil service status at Bayonne cover the rest of Bayonne?
No. Bayonne has more than one employer in the listing, and each holds its own status, runs its own examinations and keeps its own eligible lists. Seniority and permanent status earned at one do not transfer automatically to another, even inside the same town.
Do veterans get a preference on these lists?
Yes, and in New Jersey it is unusually strong. On an open competitive list, disabled veterans who pass are ranked ahead of all other candidates, and other veterans who pass are ranked ahead of non-veterans, regardless of score. Preference has to be claimed and verified in advance, and it does not carry over to promotional examinations.
How do you find out when an examination is announced?
Announcements are published by the Civil Service Commission on their own schedule, each with a filing window that closes on a fixed date. Local employers do not always advertise separately, so watching the announcements directly is more reliable than watching a municipal website. Filing late is not curable, which makes the calendar the single most important part of the process.
How many Bayonne employees are in a State pension system?
646 active memberships are reported through Bayonne, split across 366 in PFRS and 280 in PERS. This counts pension enrolment rather than payroll, so employees who are not in one of these funds are not included.
What is the median pensionable salary at Bayonne?
$87,546, with the middle half of members between $61,065 and $122,681. These figures are pensionable salary reported to the NJ Division of Pensions and Benefits for the four most recent quarters, not total pay and not take-home pay. It excludes overtime and most supplemental pay, and it is before tax, before the member's own pension contribution and before health premiums.
How does pay at Bayonne compare with the rest of Hudson County?
Its median pensionable salary of $87,546 sits at the 87th percentile among the 15 civil service jurisdictions in Hudson County with pension data, where the midpoint jurisdiction reports $66,228. Local pay is set by ordinance rather than a State schedule, so spreads inside one county are wide.
How long do people stay at Bayonne?
The median enrolled member has 8.7 years of credited service, and 24% have passed twenty years. Credited service drives both retirement eligibility and the pension formula, so a long-tenured workforce usually means fewer open competitive appointments in the near term.