Cumberland County
County Government · Cumberland County
574 people are enrolled in a State pension fund through Cumberland County, reporting a median pensionable salary of $55,996.
Cumberland County is a confirmed New Jersey civil service jurisdiction — a county government in Cumberland County that has adopted Title 11A of the New Jersey Statutes to govern how it hires, classifies, and promotes employees.
Cumberland County has 12 confirmed civil service jurisdictions in total, including this one.
About county governments in New Jersey
New Jersey's 21 counties run services that cross municipal lines: courts, county roads, parks, corrections, and often social services. A county's civil service status covers its own direct employees; the municipalities inside it each make their own separate decision about whether to join the system.
See all 12 civil service jurisdictions in Cumberland County, or browse the full employer directory.
Who is on the pension rolls at Cumberland County
574 people are enrolled in a State-administered pension fund through Cumberland County. 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 | 431 | 75% |
| PFRS | Police and Firemen's Retirement System | 143 | 25% |
Within PFRS, the fund records 143 police officers. PFRS enrolment is the only occupational detail this dataset carries; it lists no job titles, so nothing here says which civil service titles Cumberland County actually appoints.
10 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 Cumberland County.
Pensionable salary at Cumberland County
Half of the pension-enrolled workforce at Cumberland County reports a pensionable salary above $55,996 and half below, across 574 members with a reported figure.
| Point in the distribution | Pensionable salary |
|---|---|
| 10th percentile | $32,420 |
| 25th percentile | $42,893 |
| Median | $55,996 |
| 75th percentile | $74,565 |
| 90th percentile | $93,550 |
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 8 civil service jurisdictions in the same county with pension data, that median sits at the 38th percentile, below the county's midpoint of $57,805. Against the 20 bodies of the same kind statewide, it sits at the 30th 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 Cumberland County
The median enrolled member at Cumberland County has 9.5 years of credited service, with the middle half falling between 3.7 and 19.7 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 | 180 | 31% |
| 5 to 10 years | 122 | 21% |
| 10 to 15 years | 56 | 10% |
| 15 to 20 years | 78 | 14% |
| 20 to 25 years | 98 | 17% |
| 25 years or more | 40 | 7% |
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 Cumberland County, 45% sit in the most recently hired cohort.
| Membership tier | Members | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Tier 1 (longest-serving cohort) | 194 | 34% |
| Tier 2 | 24 | 4% |
| Tier 3 | 94 | 16% |
| Tier 4 | 6 | 1% |
| Tier 5 (most recently hired cohort) | 256 | 45% |
What civil service status means for jobs at Cumberland County
A county government is among the largest employers in this directory, and its civil service status reaches across the county jail, the road and bridge crews, the parks system, the clerk and surrogate offices, and in most counties a share of health and human services staff.
Several county titles have no municipal equivalent at all. County correctional police officer is the clearest case: its own entry examination, its own academy requirement, and its own closed promotional ladder up through sergeant, lieutenant and captain. A county's status also stops at its own payroll, which is why a county can operate under Title 11A while most towns inside it do not.
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.
Admission to an examination is decided on paper before anyone sits down to take it. The requirements printed in the specification are checked against what you wrote on the application, so experience you did not describe is experience that does not count. Vague employment history is the most common reason a qualified applicant never reaches the list.
Countywide civil service employers in Cumberland County
Cumberland County is the county government itself, so its civil service status covers county employees rather than anyone working for a town inside the county. Municipalities, libraries, authorities and districts each decide separately, and most of the county's towns are not in the listing at all.
One other countywide body in Cumberland County is in the listing as well. They are separate employers with separate hiring, and a candidate list certified to one is not certified to another.
- Cumberland County Library, public library
Civil service titles used by New Jersey county governments
Real classifications that New Jersey county governments 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 Cumberland County
Cumberland County holds 12 confirmed jurisdictions in the Commission's listing: 4 municipalities, 3 public libraries, 3 school districts, 1 county government, and 1 housing authority.
4 of the county's 14 municipalities are among them.
Also in the directory: Bridgeton, Bridgeton Housing Authority, Bridgeton Library, Cumberland County Library, Maurice River School District, Maurice River Township, Millville City, Millville School District. See all 12 in Cumberland County.
Common questions about Cumberland County
Is Cumberland County a civil service employer?
Yes. Cumberland County 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.
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.
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 Cumberland County employees are in a State pension system?
574 active memberships are reported through Cumberland County, split across 431 in PERS and 143 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 Cumberland County?
$55,996, with the middle half of members between $42,893 and $74,565. 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 Cumberland County compare with the rest of Cumberland County?
Its median pensionable salary of $55,996 sits at the 38th percentile among the 8 civil service jurisdictions in Cumberland County with pension data, where the midpoint jurisdiction reports $57,805. Local pay is set by ordinance rather than a State schedule, so spreads inside one county are wide.
How long do people stay at Cumberland County?
The median enrolled member has 9.5 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.