Hoboken
Municipality · Hudson County
542 people are enrolled in a State pension fund through Hoboken, reporting a median pensionable salary of $85,004.
Hoboken is a confirmed New Jersey civil service jurisdiction — a municipality in Hudson County that has adopted Title 11A of the New Jersey Statutes to govern how it hires, classifies, and promotes employees.
Hudson County has 40 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.
Hoboken 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 Hoboken
542 people are enrolled in a State-administered pension fund through Hoboken. 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 | 278 | 51% |
| PFRS | Police and Firemen's Retirement System | 264 | 49% |
Within PFRS, the fund records 141 police officers and 123 firefighters. PFRS enrolment is the only occupational detail this dataset carries; it lists no job titles, so nothing here says which civil service titles Hoboken 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 Hoboken.
Pensionable salary at Hoboken
Half of the pension-enrolled workforce at Hoboken reports a pensionable salary above $85,004 and half below, across 542 members with a reported figure.
| Point in the distribution | Pensionable salary |
|---|---|
| 10th percentile | $43,331 |
| 25th percentile | $55,312 |
| Median | $85,004 |
| 75th percentile | $137,787 |
| 90th percentile | $174,849 |
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 80th percentile, above the county's midpoint of $66,228. Against the 194 bodies of the same kind statewide, it sits at the 78th 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 Hoboken
The median enrolled member at Hoboken has 11.7 years of credited service, with the middle half falling between 4.1 and 19.5 years. 21% 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 | 161 | 30% |
| 5 to 10 years | 89 | 16% |
| 10 to 15 years | 90 | 17% |
| 15 to 20 years | 86 | 16% |
| 20 to 25 years | 67 | 12% |
| 25 years or more | 49 | 9% |
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 Hoboken, 35% sit in the most recently hired cohort.
| Membership tier | Members | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Tier 1 (longest-serving cohort) | 176 | 32% |
| Tier 2 | 11 | 2% |
| Tier 3 | 159 | 29% |
| Tier 4 | 8 | 1% |
| Tier 5 (most recently hired cohort) | 188 | 35% |
Other public employers in Hoboken
The pension system reports these separate public employers in Hoboken. 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 |
|---|---|
| HOBOKEN CITY (this page) | 542 |
| HOBOKEN BOARD OF EDUCATION | 439 |
| HOBOKEN HOUSING AUTHORITY | 62 |
What civil service status means for jobs at Hoboken
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.
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 Hoboken
Hoboken City appears in the Commission's listing in its own right, so the city government is the appointing authority for its own classified staff.
One other Hoboken body is listed separately: Hoboken Library, a public library. It is a distinct employer with its own hiring, so a job there is not a job with the city, and permanent status earned at one does not carry to the other.
- Hoboken 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: West New York Parks and Public Property, West New York Public Affairs, West New York Public Safety, West New York Public Works, West New York Revenue and Finance, Bayonne, Bayonne Housing Authority, Bayonne Library. See all 40 in Hudson County.
Common questions about Hoboken
Is Hoboken a civil service employer?
Yes. Hoboken 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 Hoboken cover the rest of Hoboken?
No. Hoboken 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.
How do you find out when an examination is announced?
Announcements are published by the Civil Service Commission on their own schedule, each with a filing window that closes on a fixed date. Local employers do not always advertise separately, so watching the announcements directly is more reliable than watching a municipal website. Filing late is not curable, which makes the calendar the single most important part of the process.
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 Hoboken employees are in a State pension system?
542 active memberships are reported through Hoboken, split across 278 in PERS and 264 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 Hoboken?
$85,004, with the middle half of members between $55,312 and $137,787. 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 Hoboken compare with the rest of Hudson County?
Its median pensionable salary of $85,004 sits at the 80th 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 Hoboken?
The median enrolled member has 11.7 years of credited service, and 21% 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.