Independence Township
Municipality · Warren County
22 people are enrolled in a State pension fund through Independence Township, reporting a median pensionable salary of $69,318.
Independence Township is a confirmed New Jersey civil service jurisdiction — a municipality in Warren County that has adopted Title 11A of the New Jersey Statutes to govern how it hires, classifies, and promotes employees.
Warren County has 16 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.
Independence Township 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 Independence Township
22 people are enrolled in a State-administered pension fund through Independence Township. 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 | 12 | 55% |
| PERS | Public Employees' Retirement System | 10 | 45% |
Within PFRS, the fund records 12 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 Independence Township actually appoints.
3 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 Independence Township.
Pensionable salary at Independence Township
Half of the pension-enrolled workforce at Independence Township reports a pensionable salary above $69,318 and half below, across 22 members with a reported figure.
| Point in the distribution | Pensionable salary |
|---|---|
| 10th percentile | $13,578 |
| 25th percentile | $25,821 |
| Median | $69,318 |
| 75th percentile | $110,204 |
| 90th percentile | $125,921 |
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 64th percentile, above the county's midpoint of $66,531. Against the 194 bodies of the same kind statewide, it sits at the 38th 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 Independence Township
The median enrolled member at Independence Township has 8.3 years of credited service, with the middle half falling between 2.6 and 14.5 years. 18% 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 | 7 | 32% |
| 5 to 10 years | 8 | 36% |
| 10 to 15 years | 1 | 5% |
| 15 to 20 years | 2 | 9% |
| 20 to 25 years | 1 | 5% |
| 25 years or more | 3 | 14% |
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 Independence Township, 32% sit in the most recently hired cohort.
| Membership tier | Members | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Tier 1 (longest-serving cohort) | 4 | 18% |
| Tier 2 | 1 | 5% |
| Tier 3 | 10 | 45% |
| Tier 5 (most recently hired cohort) | 7 | 32% |
What civil service status means for jobs at Independence Township
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.
When there is no eligible list for a title, an employer can fill the job provisionally. Provisional service is real work at real pay, but it builds no permanent rights, and the employer is supposed to request an examination so the position can be filled permanently. Anyone appointed provisionally who wants to keep the job needs to take that examination when it comes.
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.
Civil service employers in Independence Township
Independence Township appears in the Commission's listing in its own right, so the township government is the appointing authority for its own classified staff.
Nothing else in Independence Township appears alongside it. No library board, fire district, utilities authority or housing authority here holds separate status, which means every local job in Independence Township that falls under Title 11A is a job with the township government itself.
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: White Township, Allamuchy Township, Alpha Borough, Franklin Township, Hackettstown, Hackettstown Municipal Utilities Authority, Harmony Township, Liberty Township. See all 16 in Warren County.
Common questions about Independence Township
Is Independence Township a civil service employer?
Yes. Independence Township 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 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.
Do you have to live in New Jersey to work here?
Generally yes. The New Jersey First Act requires public employees hired after September 1, 2011 to live in the state, with a grace period for new hires to relocate and a narrow exemption process. Separately, individual examination announcements sometimes carry a local residency preference, which affects the order of the list rather than eligibility.
How many Independence Township employees are in a State pension system?
22 active memberships are reported through Independence Township, split across 12 in PFRS and 10 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 Independence Township?
$69,318, with the middle half of members between $25,821 and $110,204. 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 Independence Township compare with the rest of Warren County?
Its median pensionable salary of $69,318 sits at the 64th 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 Independence Township?
The median enrolled member has 8.3 years of credited service, and 18% 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.