Kearny
Municipality · Hudson County
303 people are enrolled in a State pension fund through Kearny, reporting a median pensionable salary of $90,773.
Kearny 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.
Kearny 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 Kearny
303 people are enrolled in a State-administered pension fund through Kearny. 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 | 204 | 67% |
| PERS | Public Employees' Retirement System | 99 | 33% |
Within PFRS, the fund records 105 police officers and 99 firefighters. PFRS enrolment is the only occupational detail this dataset carries; it lists no job titles, so nothing here says which civil service titles Kearny actually appoints.
Pensionable salary at Kearny
Half of the pension-enrolled workforce at Kearny reports a pensionable salary above $90,773 and half below, across 303 members with a reported figure.
| Point in the distribution | Pensionable salary |
|---|---|
| 10th percentile | $44,198 |
| 25th percentile | $62,661 |
| Median | $90,773 |
| 75th percentile | $129,021 |
| 90th percentile | $150,550 |
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 93rd percentile, above the county's midpoint of $66,228. Against the 194 bodies of the same kind statewide, it sits at the 90th 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 Kearny
The median enrolled member at Kearny has 10.3 years of credited service, with the middle half falling between 5.3 and 19.8 years. 24% 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 | 24% |
| 5 to 10 years | 73 | 24% |
| 10 to 15 years | 49 | 16% |
| 15 to 20 years | 35 | 12% |
| 20 to 25 years | 35 | 12% |
| 25 years or more | 39 | 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 Kearny, 19% sit in the most recently hired cohort.
| Membership tier | Members | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Tier 1 (longest-serving cohort) | 99 | 33% |
| Tier 2 | 3 | 1% |
| Tier 3 | 142 | 47% |
| Tier 5 (most recently hired cohort) | 59 | 19% |
Other public employers in Kearny
The pension system reports these separate public employers in Kearny. 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 |
|---|---|
| KEARNY TOWN BD OF ED | 789 |
| KEARNY TOWN (this page) | 303 |
| KEARNY MUNICIPAL UTIL AUTH | 6 |
What civil service status means for jobs at Kearny
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.
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 Kearny
Kearny Town appears in the Commission's listing in its own right, so the town government is the appointing authority for its own classified staff.
Nothing else in Kearny appears alongside it. No library board, fire district, utilities authority or housing authority here holds separate status, which means every local job in Kearny that falls under Title 11A is a job with the town 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 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: North Bergen Public Affairs, North Bergen Public Safety, North Bergen Public Works, North Bergen Revenue and Finance, North Bergen Township, North Hudson Regional Fire Rescue Service, Union City, Union City Library. See all 40 in Hudson County.
Common questions about Kearny
Is Kearny a civil service employer?
Yes. Kearny 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 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.
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.
How many Kearny employees are in a State pension system?
303 active memberships are reported through Kearny, split across 204 in PFRS and 99 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 Kearny?
$90,773, with the middle half of members between $62,661 and $129,021. 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 Kearny compare with the rest of Hudson County?
Its median pensionable salary of $90,773 sits at the 93rd 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 Kearny?
The median enrolled member has 10.3 years of credited service, and 24% 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.