Hackettstown
Municipality · Warren County
47 people are enrolled in a State pension fund through Hackettstown, reporting a median pensionable salary of $69,996.
As a municipality in Warren County, Hackettstown falls under New Jersey's Title 11A civil service system, which governs competitive hiring, classification, and promotion for its employees.
It is one of 16 confirmed civil service jurisdictions in Warren 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.
Hackettstown Police Department — discipline and transparency records via PoliceTransparencyNJ
See all 16 civil service jurisdictions in Warren County, or browse the full employer directory.
Who is on the pension rolls at Hackettstown
47 people are enrolled in a State-administered pension fund through Hackettstown. 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 | 29 | 62% |
| PFRS | Police and Firemen's Retirement System | 18 | 38% |
Within PFRS, the fund records 18 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 Hackettstown actually appoints.
2 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 Hackettstown.
Pensionable salary at Hackettstown
Half of the pension-enrolled workforce at Hackettstown reports a pensionable salary above $69,996 and half below, across 47 members with a reported figure.
| Point in the distribution | Pensionable salary |
|---|---|
| 10th percentile | $39,714 |
| 25th percentile | $49,523 |
| Median | $69,996 |
| 75th percentile | $101,403 |
| 90th percentile | $135,326 |
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 14 civil service jurisdictions in the same county with pension data, that median sits at the 71st percentile, above the county's midpoint of $66,531. Against the 194 bodies of the same kind statewide, it sits at the 40th 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 Hackettstown
The median enrolled member at Hackettstown has 9.4 years of credited service, with the middle half falling between 3 and 21.4 years. 32% 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 | 14 | 30% |
| 5 to 10 years | 10 | 21% |
| 10 to 15 years | 4 | 9% |
| 15 to 20 years | 4 | 9% |
| 20 to 25 years | 9 | 19% |
| 25 years or more | 6 | 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 Hackettstown, 30% sit in the most recently hired cohort.
| Membership tier | Members | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Tier 1 (longest-serving cohort) | 17 | 36% |
| Tier 2 | 2 | 4% |
| Tier 3 | 14 | 30% |
| Tier 5 (most recently hired cohort) | 14 | 30% |
Other public employers in Hackettstown
The pension system reports these separate public employers in Hackettstown. 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 |
|---|---|
| HACKETTSTOWN BD OF ED | 335 |
| HACKETTSTOWN TOWN (this page) | 47 |
| HACKETTSTOWN MUN UTIL AUTHORIT | 16 |
What civil service status means for jobs at Hackettstown
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.
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 Hackettstown
Hackettstown 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 Hackettstown body is listed separately: Hackettstown Municipal Utilities Authority, a municipal utilities authority. 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.
- Hackettstown Municipal Utilities Authority, municipal utilities authority
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 Warren County
Warren County holds 16 confirmed jurisdictions in the Commission's listing: 12 municipalities, 1 county government, 1 public library, 1 mosquito extermination commission, and 1 municipal utilities authority.
12 of the county's 22 municipalities are among them.
Warren 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: Independence Township, Liberty Township, Lopatcong, Phillipsburg, Phillipsburg Library, Pohatcong Township, Warren County Mosquito Extermination, Washington Borough. See all 16 in Warren County.
Common questions about Hackettstown
Is Hackettstown a civil service employer?
Yes. Hackettstown 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 Hackettstown cover the rest of Hackettstown?
No. Hackettstown 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.
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 Hackettstown employees are in a State pension system?
47 active memberships are reported through Hackettstown, split across 29 in PERS and 18 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 Hackettstown?
$69,996, with the middle half of members between $49,523 and $101,403. 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 Hackettstown compare with the rest of Warren County?
Its median pensionable salary of $69,996 sits at the 71st percentile among the 14 civil service jurisdictions in Warren County with pension data, where the midpoint jurisdiction reports $66,531. Local pay is set by ordinance rather than a State schedule, so spreads inside one county are wide.
How long do people stay at Hackettstown?
The median enrolled member has 9.4 years of credited service, and 32% 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.