Passaic City
Municipality · Passaic County
476 people are enrolled in a State pension fund through Passaic City, reporting a median pensionable salary of $67,514.
Passaic City is a confirmed New Jersey civil service jurisdiction — a municipality in Passaic County that has adopted Title 11A of the New Jersey Statutes to govern how it hires, classifies, and promotes employees.
Passaic County has 20 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.
Passaic Police Department — discipline and transparency records via PoliceTransparencyNJ
See all 20 civil service jurisdictions in Passaic County, or browse the full employer directory.
Who is on the pension rolls at Passaic City
476 people are enrolled in a State-administered pension fund through Passaic City. 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 | 250 | 53% |
| PERS | Public Employees' Retirement System | 226 | 47% |
Within PFRS, the fund records 149 police officers and 101 firefighters. PFRS enrolment is the only occupational detail this dataset carries; it lists no job titles, so nothing here says which civil service titles Passaic City 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 Passaic City.
Pensionable salary at Passaic City
Half of the pension-enrolled workforce at Passaic City reports a pensionable salary above $67,514 and half below, across 476 members with a reported figure.
| Point in the distribution | Pensionable salary |
|---|---|
| 10th percentile | $34,601 |
| 25th percentile | $49,356 |
| Median | $67,514 |
| 75th percentile | $129,207 |
| 90th percentile | $156,201 |
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 27th percentile, below the county's midpoint of $74,681. Against the 194 bodies of the same kind statewide, it sits at the 29th 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 Passaic City
The median enrolled member at Passaic City has 10.3 years of credited service, with the middle half falling between 5.2 and 21.6 years. 29% 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 | 117 | 25% |
| 5 to 10 years | 111 | 23% |
| 10 to 15 years | 80 | 17% |
| 15 to 20 years | 32 | 7% |
| 20 to 25 years | 82 | 17% |
| 25 years or more | 54 | 11% |
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 Passaic City, 31% sit in the most recently hired cohort.
| Membership tier | Members | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Tier 1 (longest-serving cohort) | 153 | 32% |
| Tier 2 | 8 | 2% |
| Tier 3 | 167 | 35% |
| Tier 4 | 2 | 0% |
| Tier 5 (most recently hired cohort) | 146 | 31% |
Other public employers in Passaic
The pension system reports these separate public employers in Passaic. 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 |
|---|---|
| PASSAIC BOARD OF EDUCATION | 1,838 |
| PASSAIC COUNTY | 1,430 |
| PASSAIC CITY (this page) | 476 |
| PASSAIC CO BD OF SOCIAL SERVIC | 411 |
| PASSAIC CITY HOUSING AUTHORITY | 31 |
What civil service status means for jobs at Passaic City
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 Passaic
Passaic City appears in the Commission's listing in its own right, so the city government is the appointing authority for its own classified staff.
Two other Passaic bodies hold civil service status separately from the city government, listed below. Each runs its own examinations and keeps its own eligible lists, so Passaic is really three employers rather than one.
- Passaic City Library, public library
- Passaic Valley Water Commission, municipal utilities authority
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 Passaic County
Passaic County holds 20 confirmed jurisdictions in the Commission's listing: 8 municipalities, 7 public libraries, 3 municipal utilities authorities, 1 board of social services, and 1 county government.
8 of the county's 16 municipalities are among them.
Passaic 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: Clifton Library, Passaic City Library, Passaic County Board of Social Services, Passaic Valley Water Commission, Paterson, Paterson Library, Pompton Lakes Borough, Pompton Lakes Library. See all 20 in Passaic County.
Common questions about Passaic City
Is Passaic City a civil service employer?
Yes. Passaic City 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 Passaic City cover the rest of Passaic?
No. Passaic 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.
Can you challenge an examination result?
Yes. Eligibility determinations, examination scoring and list placement can be appealed to the Civil Service Commission, and there are filing deadlines measured from the date of the notice rather than from when you happen to see it. The appeal route is the reason the notices matter: missing the window generally forecloses the argument.
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 Passaic City employees are in a State pension system?
476 active memberships are reported through Passaic City, split across 250 in PFRS and 226 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 Passaic City?
$67,514, with the middle half of members between $49,356 and $129,207. 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 Passaic City compare with the rest of Passaic County?
Its median pensionable salary of $67,514 sits at the 27th percentile among the 11 civil service jurisdictions in Passaic County with pension data, where the midpoint jurisdiction reports $74,681. Local pay is set by ordinance rather than a State schedule, so spreads inside one county are wide.
How long do people stay at Passaic City?
The median enrolled member has 10.3 years of credited service, and 29% 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.