New Brunswick
Municipality · Middlesex County
509 people are enrolled in a State pension fund through New Brunswick, reporting a median pensionable salary of $76,464.
New Brunswick, a municipality in Middlesex County, operates under New Jersey's Title 11A civil service system rather than setting its own hiring rules independently.
Within Middlesex County, 19 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.
New Brunswick Police Department — discipline and transparency records via PoliceTransparencyNJ
See all 19 civil service jurisdictions in Middlesex County, or browse the full employer directory.
Who is on the pension rolls at New Brunswick
509 people are enrolled in a State-administered pension fund through New Brunswick. 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 | 263 | 52% |
| PFRS | Police and Firemen's Retirement System | 246 | 48% |
Within PFRS, the fund records 146 police officers and 100 firefighters. PFRS enrolment is the only occupational detail this dataset carries; it lists no job titles, so nothing here says which civil service titles New Brunswick actually appoints.
4 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 New Brunswick.
Pensionable salary at New Brunswick
Half of the pension-enrolled workforce at New Brunswick reports a pensionable salary above $76,464 and half below, across 509 members with a reported figure.
| Point in the distribution | Pensionable salary |
|---|---|
| 10th percentile | $38,182 |
| 25th percentile | $46,979 |
| Median | $76,464 |
| 75th percentile | $135,862 |
| 90th percentile | $158,004 |
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 11 civil service jurisdictions in the same county with pension data, that median sits at the 64th percentile, above the county's midpoint of $75,739. Against the 194 bodies of the same kind statewide, it sits at the 61st 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 New Brunswick
The median enrolled member at New Brunswick has 10.8 years of credited service, with the middle half falling between 3.9 and 20.8 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 | 153 | 30% |
| 5 to 10 years | 80 | 16% |
| 10 to 15 years | 85 | 17% |
| 15 to 20 years | 51 | 10% |
| 20 to 25 years | 80 | 16% |
| 25 years or more | 60 | 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 New Brunswick, 34% sit in the most recently hired cohort.
| Membership tier | Members | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Tier 1 (longest-serving cohort) | 177 | 35% |
| Tier 2 | 7 | 1% |
| Tier 3 | 146 | 29% |
| Tier 4 | 4 | 1% |
| Tier 5 (most recently hired cohort) | 175 | 34% |
Other public employers in New Brunswick
The pension system reports these separate public employers in New Brunswick. 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 |
|---|---|
| NEW BRUNSWICK BD OF ED | 1,566 |
| NEW BRUNSWICK CITY (this page) | 509 |
| NEW BRUNSWICK PARKING AUTHORIT | 64 |
| NEW BRUNSWICK HOUSING AUTHORIT | 13 |
What civil service status means for jobs at New Brunswick
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.
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.
Civil service employers in New Brunswick
New Brunswick City appears in the Commission's listing in its own right, so the city government is the appointing authority for its own classified staff.
Nothing else in New Brunswick appears alongside it. No library board, fire district, utilities authority or housing authority here holds separate status, which means every local job in New Brunswick that falls under Title 11A is a job with the city 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 Middlesex County
Middlesex County holds 19 confirmed jurisdictions in the Commission's listing: 9 municipalities, 5 public libraries, 1 board of health, 1 board of social services, 1 county government, 1 fire district, and 1 mosquito extermination commission.
9 of the county's 25 municipalities are among them.
Middlesex 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 Brunswick Library, North Brunswick Township, Perth Amboy, Sayreville Borough, South Amboy, South Amboy Library, South Plainfield, South Plainfield Library. See all 19 in Middlesex County.
Common questions about New Brunswick
Is New Brunswick a civil service employer?
Yes. New Brunswick 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.
Does the state salary schedule apply to local jobs?
No. The salary schedules in the Compensation Compendium cover state employees. A local employer sets its own pay through ordinance and its own collective bargaining, so two towns using the identical civil service title can pay very differently. The title specification is statewide; the money attached to it is local.
How many New Brunswick employees are in a State pension system?
509 active memberships are reported through New Brunswick, split across 263 in PERS and 246 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 New Brunswick?
$76,464, with the middle half of members between $46,979 and $135,862. 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 New Brunswick compare with the rest of Middlesex County?
Its median pensionable salary of $76,464 sits at the 64th percentile among the 11 civil service jurisdictions in Middlesex County with pension data, where the midpoint jurisdiction reports $75,739. Local pay is set by ordinance rather than a State schedule, so spreads inside one county are wide.
How long do people stay at New Brunswick?
The median enrolled member has 10.8 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.