Carteret Borough
Municipality · Middlesex County
168 people are enrolled in a State pension fund through Carteret Borough, reporting a median pensionable salary of $85,882.
Carteret Borough, a municipality in Middlesex County, operates under New Jersey's Title 11A civil service system rather than setting its own hiring rules independently.
Within Middlesex County, 19 local government entities in total carry this same confirmed status.
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.
Carteret Police Department — discipline and transparency records via PoliceTransparencyNJ
See all 19 civil service jurisdictions in Middlesex County, or browse the full employer directory.
Who is on the pension rolls at Carteret Borough
168 people are enrolled in a State-administered pension fund through Carteret Borough. 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 | 88 | 52% |
| PERS | Public Employees' Retirement System | 80 | 48% |
Within PFRS, the fund records 67 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 Carteret Borough actually appoints.
3 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 Carteret Borough.
Pensionable salary at Carteret Borough
Half of the pension-enrolled workforce at Carteret Borough reports a pensionable salary above $85,882 and half below, across 168 members with a reported figure.
| Point in the distribution | Pensionable salary |
|---|---|
| 10th percentile | $33,638 |
| 25th percentile | $52,029 |
| Median | $85,882 |
| 75th percentile | $140,238 |
| 90th percentile | $158,715 |
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 11 civil service jurisdictions in the same county with pension data, that median sits at the 91st percentile, above the county's midpoint of $75,739. Against the 194 bodies of the same kind statewide, it sits at the 81st 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 Carteret Borough
The median enrolled member at Carteret Borough has 10.6 years of credited service, with the middle half falling between 4 and 22.8 years. 35% 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 | 48 | 29% |
| 5 to 10 years | 30 | 18% |
| 10 to 15 years | 19 | 11% |
| 15 to 20 years | 13 | 8% |
| 20 to 25 years | 27 | 16% |
| 25 years or more | 31 | 18% |
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 Carteret Borough, 28% sit in the most recently hired cohort.
| Membership tier | Members | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Tier 1 (longest-serving cohort) | 69 | 41% |
| Tier 3 | 52 | 31% |
| Tier 5 (most recently hired cohort) | 47 | 28% |
Other public employers in Carteret Borough
The pension system reports these separate public employers in Carteret Borough. 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 |
|---|---|
| CARTERET BD OF ED | 455 |
| CARTERET BOROUGH (this page) | 168 |
| CARTERET HOUSING AUTHORITY | 8 |
| CARTERET REDEVELOPMENT AGENCY | 1 |
What civil service status means for jobs at Carteret Borough
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.
Your title, not your assignment, defines what you are supposed to be doing. If the duties you actually perform drift outside the specification for the title you hold, that is a classification question rather than a management preference, and an employee can ask for the position to be reviewed and reclassified. It is one of the quieter protections in the system and one of the least used.
New Jersey does not require an employer to hire whoever scored highest. When a list is certified, the appointing authority may choose among the top three interested candidates, which is why a rank of two or three on a list is still a serious position and why interviews still decide outcomes.
Civil service employers in Carteret Borough
Carteret Borough appears in the Commission's listing in its own right, so the borough government is the appointing authority for its own classified staff.
Two other Carteret Borough bodies hold civil service status separately from the borough government, listed below. Each runs its own examinations and keeps its own eligible lists, so Carteret Borough is really three employers rather than one.
- Carteret Board of Health, board of health
- Carteret 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 Middlesex County
Middlesex County holds 19 confirmed jurisdictions in the Commission's listing: 9 municipalities, 5 public libraries, 1 board of health, 1 board of social services, 1 county government, 1 fire district, and 1 mosquito extermination commission.
9 of the county's 25 municipalities are among them.
Middlesex 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: Carteret Board of Health, Carteret Library, Middlesex County Board of Social Services, Middlesex County Mosquito Extermination, Milltown Borough, New Brunswick, North Brunswick Library, North Brunswick Township. See all 19 in Middlesex County.
Common questions about Carteret Borough
Is Carteret Borough a civil service employer?
Yes. Carteret Borough 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 Carteret Borough cover the rest of Carteret Borough?
No. Carteret Borough 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.
Does permanent status transfer to another civil service employer?
Not automatically. Permanent status belongs to a title at a particular appointing authority, so moving to another jurisdiction usually means a new appointment and a new working test period. Intergovernmental transfers between civil service employers are possible in the same or a comparable title, but they need agreement on both sides rather than being a right you can exercise.
Is the job specification the same everywhere?
Yes, and that is the point of the classification system. A title has one specification statewide, covering the definition of the work, the education and experience requirements, and any licence the title depends on. That is what makes experience gained at one civil service employer legible to another, even in a different county.
How many Carteret Borough employees are in a State pension system?
168 active memberships are reported through Carteret Borough, split across 88 in PFRS and 80 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 Carteret Borough?
$85,882, with the middle half of members between $52,029 and $140,238. 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 Carteret Borough compare with the rest of Middlesex County?
Its median pensionable salary of $85,882 sits at the 91st percentile among the 11 civil service jurisdictions in Middlesex County with pension data, where the midpoint jurisdiction reports $75,739. Local pay is set by ordinance rather than a State schedule, so spreads inside one county are wide.
How long do people stay at Carteret Borough?
The median enrolled member has 10.6 years of credited service, and 35% 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.