Cape May City
Municipality · Cape May County
136 people are enrolled in a State pension fund through Cape May City, reporting a median pensionable salary of $55,894.
As a municipality in Cape May County, Cape May City falls under New Jersey's Title 11A civil service system, which governs competitive hiring, classification, and promotion for its employees.
It is one of 22 confirmed civil service jurisdictions in Cape May County.
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.
Cape May City Police Department — discipline and transparency records via PoliceTransparencyNJ
See all 22 civil service jurisdictions in Cape May County, or browse the full employer directory.
Who is on the pension rolls at Cape May City
136 people are enrolled in a State-administered pension fund through Cape May City. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| PERS | Public Employees' Retirement System | 88 | 65% |
| PFRS | Police and Firemen's Retirement System | 48 | 35% |
Within PFRS, the fund records 27 police officers and 21 firefighters. PFRS enrolment is the only occupational detail this dataset carries; it lists no job titles, so nothing here says which civil service titles Cape May City actually appoints.
Pensionable salary at Cape May City
Half of the pension-enrolled workforce at Cape May City reports a pensionable salary above $55,894 and half below, across 136 members with a reported figure.
| Point in the distribution | Pensionable salary |
|---|---|
| 10th percentile | $36,971 |
| 25th percentile | $42,931 |
| Median | $55,894 |
| 75th percentile | $75,897 |
| 90th percentile | $112,936 |
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 16 civil service jurisdictions in the same county with pension data, that median sits at the 38th percentile, below the county's midpoint of $60,305. Against the 194 bodies of the same kind statewide, it sits at the 8th 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 Cape May City
The median enrolled member at Cape May City has 6.5 years of credited service, with the middle half falling between 2.5 and 15.6 years. 19% 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 | 63 | 46% |
| 5 to 10 years | 22 | 16% |
| 10 to 15 years | 15 | 11% |
| 15 to 20 years | 10 | 7% |
| 20 to 25 years | 18 | 13% |
| 25 years or more | 8 | 6% |
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 Cape May City, 51% sit in the most recently hired cohort.
| Membership tier | Members | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Tier 1 (longest-serving cohort) | 31 | 23% |
| Tier 2 | 3 | 2% |
| Tier 3 | 31 | 23% |
| Tier 4 | 1 | 1% |
| Tier 5 (most recently hired cohort) | 70 | 51% |
Other public employers in Cape May
The pension system reports these separate public employers in Cape May. 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 |
|---|---|
| CAPE MAY COUNTY | 728 |
| CAPE MAY COUNTY MUN UTIL AUTH | 149 |
| CAPE MAY CITY (this page) | 136 |
| CAPE MAY CO BD SOCIAL SERVICES | 83 |
| CAPE MAY CITY BD OF ED | 36 |
| CAPE MAY CITY HOUSING AUTHORIT | 3 |
What civil service status means for jobs at Cape May City
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.
Promotional examinations are closed. They are open to employees already serving in the unit, scored on a combination of the examination and seniority, and they are how most supervisory positions in local government get filled. It is the main reason entry-level appointments matter so much: they are the door to the ladder above them.
Temporary and seasonal appointments sit outside the permanent track entirely. Summer recreation staff, short-term project help and coverage for an absent employee are filled without an examination and end when the need does. The work counts as experience when you later apply for a competitive title, but it confers no status of its own.
Civil service employers in Cape May
Cape May City appears in the Commission's listing in its own right, so the city government is the appointing authority for its own classified staff.
Nothing else in Cape May appears alongside it. No library board, fire district, utilities authority or housing authority here holds separate status, which means every local job in Cape May that falls under Title 11A is a job with the city government itself.
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 Cape May County
Cape May County holds 22 confirmed jurisdictions in the Commission's listing: 11 municipalities, 3 municipal departments, 2 housing authorities, 2 public libraries, 1 county government, 1 fire district, 1 school district, and 1 municipal utilities authority.
11 of the county's 16 municipalities are among them.
Cape May 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: Middle Township, Middle Township Fire Districts (4), Middle Township School District, North Wildwood City, Ocean City, Ocean City Housing Authority, Ocean City Library, Sea Isle City. See all 22 in Cape May County.
Common questions about Cape May City
Is Cape May City a civil service employer?
Yes. Cape May City 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.
Is there always a written test?
No. New Jersey runs both assembled examinations, where candidates are scheduled to sit a test, and unassembled ones, where a reviewer scores your education and experience against the requirements in the specification and there is no test day at all. The announcement says which kind it is. For an unassembled examination the application itself is the examination, so how fully you describe your experience is the score.
Can you challenge an examination result?
Yes. Eligibility determinations, examination scoring and list placement can be appealed to the Civil Service Commission, and there are filing deadlines measured from the date of the notice rather than from when you happen to see it. The appeal route is the reason the notices matter: missing the window generally forecloses the argument.
How many Cape May City employees are in a State pension system?
136 active memberships are reported through Cape May City, split across 88 in PERS and 48 in PFRS. 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 Cape May City?
$55,894, with the middle half of members between $42,931 and $75,897. 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 Cape May City compare with the rest of Cape May County?
Its median pensionable salary of $55,894 sits at the 38th percentile among the 16 civil service jurisdictions in Cape May County with pension data, where the midpoint jurisdiction reports $60,305. Local pay is set by ordinance rather than a State schedule, so spreads inside one county are wide.
How long do people stay at Cape May City?
The median enrolled member has 6.5 years of credited service, and 19% 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.