Lopatcong
Municipality · Warren County
33 people are enrolled in a State pension fund through Lopatcong, reporting a median pensionable salary of $93,676.
Lopatcong, a municipality in Warren County, operates under New Jersey's Title 11A civil service system rather than setting its own hiring rules independently.
Within Warren County, 16 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.
Lopatcong 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 Lopatcong
33 people are enrolled in a State-administered pension fund through Lopatcong. 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 | 19 | 58% |
| PERS | Public Employees' Retirement System | 14 | 42% |
Within PFRS, the fund records 19 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 Lopatcong actually appoints.
Pensionable salary at Lopatcong
Half of the pension-enrolled workforce at Lopatcong reports a pensionable salary above $93,676 and half below, across 33 members with a reported figure.
| Point in the distribution | Pensionable salary |
|---|---|
| 10th percentile | $56,768 |
| 25th percentile | $60,344 |
| Median | $93,676 |
| 75th percentile | $125,524 |
| 90th percentile | $138,438 |
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 100th percentile, above the county's midpoint of $66,531. Against the 194 bodies of the same kind statewide, it sits at the 94th 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 Lopatcong
The median enrolled member at Lopatcong has 15.1 years of credited service, with the middle half falling between 5.1 and 21.4 years. 39% 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 | 8 | 24% |
| 5 to 10 years | 6 | 18% |
| 10 to 15 years | 2 | 6% |
| 15 to 20 years | 4 | 12% |
| 20 to 25 years | 9 | 27% |
| 25 years or more | 4 | 12% |
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 Lopatcong, 21% sit in the most recently hired cohort.
| Membership tier | Members | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Tier 1 (longest-serving cohort) | 14 | 42% |
| Tier 3 | 12 | 36% |
| Tier 5 (most recently hired cohort) | 7 | 21% |
Other public employers in Lopatcong Township
The pension system reports these separate public employers in Lopatcong Township. 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 |
|---|---|
| LOPATCONG TOWNSHIP BD OF ED | 96 |
| LOPATCONG TOWNSHIP (this page) | 33 |
What civil service status means for jobs at Lopatcong
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.
Your title, not your assignment, defines what you are supposed to be doing. If the duties you actually perform drift outside the specification for the title you hold, that is a classification question rather than a management preference, and an employee can ask for the position to be reviewed and reclassified. It is one of the quieter protections in the system and one of the least used.
A permanent appointment starts with a working test period. You hold the title, you draw the salary, and you can still be released for unsatisfactory performance without the full removal process. Permanent status, and the job protection that comes with it, begins only once that period is completed satisfactorily.
Civil service employers in Lopatcong Township
Lopatcong 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 Lopatcong Township appears alongside it. No library board, fire district, utilities authority or housing authority here holds separate status, which means every local job in Lopatcong 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: Warren County Mosquito Extermination, Washington Borough, White Township, Allamuchy Township, Alpha Borough, Franklin Township, Hackettstown, Hackettstown Municipal Utilities Authority. See all 16 in Warren County.
Common questions about Lopatcong
Is Lopatcong a civil service employer?
Yes. Lopatcong 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.
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.
Is there always a written test?
No. New Jersey runs both assembled examinations, where candidates are scheduled to sit a test, and unassembled ones, where a reviewer scores your education and experience against the requirements in the specification and there is no test day at all. The announcement says which kind it is. For an unassembled examination the application itself is the examination, so how fully you describe your experience is the score.
How many Lopatcong employees are in a State pension system?
33 active memberships are reported through Lopatcong, split across 19 in PFRS and 14 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 Lopatcong?
$93,676, with the middle half of members between $60,344 and $125,524. 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 Lopatcong compare with the rest of Warren County?
Its median pensionable salary of $93,676 sits at the 100th 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 Lopatcong?
The median enrolled member has 15.1 years of credited service, and 39% 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.