Harrison
Municipality · Hudson County
188 people are enrolled in a State pension fund through Harrison, reporting a median pensionable salary of $69,723.
Harrison, a municipality in Hudson County, operates under New Jersey's Title 11A civil service system rather than setting its own hiring rules independently.
Within Hudson County, 40 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.
Harrison Police Department — discipline and transparency records via PoliceTransparencyNJ
See all 40 civil service jurisdictions in Hudson County, or browse the full employer directory.
Who is on the pension rolls at Harrison
188 people are enrolled in a State-administered pension fund through Harrison. 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 | 105 | 56% |
| PERS | Public Employees' Retirement System | 83 | 44% |
Within PFRS, the fund records 57 police officers and 48 firefighters. PFRS enrolment is the only occupational detail this dataset carries; it lists no job titles, so nothing here says which civil service titles Harrison 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 Harrison.
Pensionable salary at Harrison
Half of the pension-enrolled workforce at Harrison reports a pensionable salary above $69,723 and half below, across 188 members with a reported figure.
| Point in the distribution | Pensionable salary |
|---|---|
| 10th percentile | $29,374 |
| 25th percentile | $46,118 |
| Median | $69,723 |
| 75th percentile | $107,539 |
| 90th percentile | $157,425 |
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 15 civil service jurisdictions in the same county with pension data, that median sits at the 60th percentile, above the county's midpoint of $66,228. Against the 194 bodies of the same kind statewide, it sits at the 39th 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 Harrison
The median enrolled member at Harrison has 7.8 years of credited service, with the middle half falling between 3.2 and 21.1 years. 28% 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 | 72 | 38% |
| 5 to 10 years | 34 | 18% |
| 10 to 15 years | 20 | 11% |
| 15 to 20 years | 10 | 5% |
| 20 to 25 years | 23 | 12% |
| 25 years or more | 29 | 15% |
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 Harrison, 23% sit in the most recently hired cohort.
| Membership tier | Members | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Tier 1 (longest-serving cohort) | 58 | 31% |
| Tier 3 | 85 | 45% |
| Tier 4 | 1 | 1% |
| Tier 5 (most recently hired cohort) | 44 | 23% |
Other public employers in Harrison
The pension system reports these separate public employers in Harrison. 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 |
|---|---|
| HARRISON TOWN BD OF ED(HUDSON) | 337 |
| HARRISON TOWN (HUDSON) (this page) | 188 |
| HARRISON TOWN HOUSING AUTHORIT | 13 |
What civil service status means for jobs at Harrison
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.
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.
Civil service employers in Harrison
Harrison Town appears in the Commission's listing in its own right, so the town government is the appointing authority for its own classified staff.
Two other Harrison bodies hold civil service status separately from the town government, listed below. Each runs its own examinations and keeps its own eligible lists, so Harrison is really three employers rather than one.
- Harrison Housing Authority, housing authority
- Harrison 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 Hudson County
Hudson County holds 40 confirmed jurisdictions in the Commission's listing: 15 municipal departments, 9 municipalities, 8 public libraries, 2 housing authorities, 2 school districts, 1 county government, 1 fire district, 1 redevelopment agency, and 1 municipal utilities authority.
9 of the county's 12 municipalities are among them.
Hudson 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: Union City Public Safety, Union City Public Works, Union City Revenue and Finance, Weehawken Library, Weehawken School District, Weehawken Township, West New York, West New York Library. See all 40 in Hudson County.
Common questions about Harrison
Is Harrison a civil service employer?
Yes. Harrison 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 Harrison cover the rest of Harrison?
No. Harrison 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.
Are there jobs here that never go through an examination?
Yes. Unclassified positions, which typically include department heads and confidential staff, are filled at the discretion of the appointing authority. Noncompetitive and labor titles inside the classified service are also filled without a competitive examination, though they still sit under civil service rules for things like layoff rights.
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.
How many Harrison employees are in a State pension system?
188 active memberships are reported through Harrison, split across 105 in PFRS and 83 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 Harrison?
$69,723, with the middle half of members between $46,118 and $107,539. 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 Harrison compare with the rest of Hudson County?
Its median pensionable salary of $69,723 sits at the 60th percentile among the 15 civil service jurisdictions in Hudson County with pension data, where the midpoint jurisdiction reports $66,228. Local pay is set by ordinance rather than a State schedule, so spreads inside one county are wide.
How long do people stay at Harrison?
The median enrolled member has 7.8 years of credited service, and 28% 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.