Dover
Municipality · Morris County
125 people are enrolled in a State pension fund through Dover, reporting a median pensionable salary of $80,941.
Dover is a confirmed New Jersey civil service jurisdiction — a municipality in Morris County that has adopted Title 11A of the New Jersey Statutes to govern how it hires, classifies, and promotes employees.
Morris County has 19 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.
Dover Police Department — discipline and transparency records via PoliceTransparencyNJ
See all 19 civil service jurisdictions in Morris County, or browse the full employer directory.
Who is on the pension rolls at Dover
125 people are enrolled in a State-administered pension fund through Dover. 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 | 70 | 56% |
| PFRS | Police and Firemen's Retirement System | 55 | 44% |
Within PFRS, the fund records 36 police officers and 19 firefighters. PFRS enrolment is the only occupational detail this dataset carries; it lists no job titles, so nothing here says which civil service titles Dover actually appoints.
Pensionable salary at Dover
Half of the pension-enrolled workforce at Dover reports a pensionable salary above $80,941 and half below, across 125 members with a reported figure.
| Point in the distribution | Pensionable salary |
|---|---|
| 10th percentile | $53,612 |
| 25th percentile | $66,627 |
| Median | $80,941 |
| 75th percentile | $130,485 |
| 90th percentile | $161,905 |
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 10 civil service jurisdictions in the same county with pension data, that median sits at the 60th percentile, above the county's midpoint of $80,127. Against the 194 bodies of the same kind statewide, it sits at the 70th 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 Dover
The median enrolled member at Dover has 9.6 years of credited service, with the middle half falling between 3.5 and 19.1 years. 23% 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 | 39 | 31% |
| 5 to 10 years | 26 | 21% |
| 10 to 15 years | 18 | 14% |
| 15 to 20 years | 13 | 10% |
| 20 to 25 years | 15 | 12% |
| 25 years or more | 14 | 11% |
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 Dover, 40% sit in the most recently hired cohort.
| Membership tier | Members | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Tier 1 (longest-serving cohort) | 36 | 29% |
| Tier 2 | 3 | 2% |
| Tier 3 | 36 | 29% |
| Tier 5 (most recently hired cohort) | 50 | 40% |
Other public employers in Dover
The pension system reports these separate public employers in Dover. 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 |
|---|---|
| DOVER BD OF ED | 498 |
| DOVER TOWN (this page) | 125 |
| DOVER TOWN HOUSING AUTHORITY | 4 |
What civil service status means for jobs at Dover
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.
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.
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.
Civil service employers in Dover
Dover Town appears in the Commission's listing in its own right, so the town government is the appointing authority for its own classified staff.
One other Dover body is listed separately: Dover Library, a public library. It is a distinct employer with its own hiring, so a job there is not a job with the town, and permanent status earned at one does not carry to the other.
- Dover 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 Morris County
Morris County holds 19 confirmed jurisdictions in the Commission's listing: 9 municipalities, 8 public libraries, 1 county government, and 1 fire district.
9 of the county's 39 municipalities are among them.
Morris 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: Butler Borough, Butler Library, Dover Library, Jefferson Township, Jefferson Township Library, Lincoln Park Borough, Lincoln Park Library, Montville Fire Districts (3). See all 19 in Morris County.
Common questions about Dover
Is Dover a civil service employer?
Yes. Dover 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 Dover cover the rest of Dover?
No. Dover 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 the Civil Service Commission decide who gets hired?
No. The Commission runs the examination, ranks the candidates and certifies the list. The employer is the appointing authority: it decides whether to fill the position at all and which of the reachable candidates to appoint. That division is why a high score improves your odds without guaranteeing anything.
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.
How many Dover employees are in a State pension system?
125 active memberships are reported through Dover, split across 70 in PERS and 55 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 Dover?
$80,941, with the middle half of members between $66,627 and $130,485. 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 Dover compare with the rest of Morris County?
Its median pensionable salary of $80,941 sits at the 60th percentile among the 10 civil service jurisdictions in Morris County with pension data, where the midpoint jurisdiction reports $80,127. Local pay is set by ordinance rather than a State schedule, so spreads inside one county are wide.
How long do people stay at Dover?
The median enrolled member has 9.6 years of credited service, and 23% 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.