South Orange Village
Municipality · Essex County
108 people are enrolled in a State pension fund through South Orange Village, reporting a median pensionable salary of $79,008.
As a municipality in Essex County, South Orange Village falls under New Jersey's Title 11A civil service system, which governs competitive hiring, classification, and promotion for its employees.
It is one of 33 confirmed civil service jurisdictions in Essex County.
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.
South Orange Police Department — discipline and transparency records via PoliceTransparencyNJ
See all 33 civil service jurisdictions in Essex County, or browse the full employer directory.
Who is on the pension rolls at South Orange Village
108 people are enrolled in a State-administered pension fund through South Orange Village. 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 | 64 | 59% |
| PFRS | Police and Firemen's Retirement System | 44 | 41% |
Within PFRS, the fund records 44 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 South Orange Village actually appoints.
1 of these members holds 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 South Orange Village.
Pensionable salary at South Orange Village
Half of the pension-enrolled workforce at South Orange Village reports a pensionable salary above $79,008 and half below, across 108 members with a reported figure.
| Point in the distribution | Pensionable salary |
|---|---|
| 10th percentile | $39,724 |
| 25th percentile | $57,000 |
| Median | $79,008 |
| 75th percentile | $114,732 |
| 90th percentile | $157,283 |
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 18 civil service jurisdictions in the same county with pension data, that median sits at the 50th percentile, below the county's midpoint of $80,912. Against the 194 bodies of the same kind statewide, it sits at the 66th 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 South Orange Village
The median enrolled member at South Orange Village has 9.6 years of credited service, with the middle half falling between 3.7 and 20.7 years. 26% 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 | 33 | 31% |
| 5 to 10 years | 23 | 21% |
| 10 to 15 years | 17 | 16% |
| 15 to 20 years | 7 | 6% |
| 20 to 25 years | 9 | 8% |
| 25 years or more | 19 | 18% |
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 South Orange Village, 34% sit in the most recently hired cohort.
| Membership tier | Members | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Tier 1 (longest-serving cohort) | 33 | 31% |
| Tier 2 | 1 | 1% |
| Tier 3 | 36 | 33% |
| Tier 4 | 1 | 1% |
| Tier 5 (most recently hired cohort) | 37 | 34% |
Other public employers in South Orange Village
The pension system reports these separate public employers in South Orange Village. 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 |
|---|---|
| SOUTH ORANGE VILLAGE (this page) | 108 |
| SOUTH ORANGE TWP PARKING AUTH | 7 |
What civil service status means for jobs at South Orange Village
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.
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.
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.
Civil service employers in South Orange Village
South Orange Village appears in the Commission's listing in its own right, so the village government is the appointing authority for its own classified staff.
One other South Orange Village body is listed separately: South Orange Library, a public library. It is a distinct employer with its own hiring, so a job there is not a job with the village, and permanent status earned at one does not carry to the other.
- South Orange Library, public library
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 Essex County
Essex County holds 33 confirmed jurisdictions in the Commission's listing: 11 public libraries, 11 municipalities, 5 municipal departments, 2 housing authorities, 1 board of health, 1 county government, 1 fire district, and 1 school district.
11 of the county's 22 municipalities are among them.
Essex 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: East Orange, East Orange Library, Irvington, Irvington Housing Authority, Irvington Library, Millburn Library, Millburn Township, Newark. See all 33 in Essex County.
Common questions about South Orange Village
Is South Orange Village a civil service employer?
Yes. South Orange Village 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 South Orange Village cover the rest of South Orange Village?
No. South Orange Village 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.
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.
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 South Orange Village employees are in a State pension system?
108 active memberships are reported through South Orange Village, split across 64 in PERS and 44 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 South Orange Village?
$79,008, with the middle half of members between $57,000 and $114,732. 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 South Orange Village compare with the rest of Essex County?
Its median pensionable salary of $79,008 sits at the 50th percentile among the 18 civil service jurisdictions in Essex County with pension data, where the midpoint jurisdiction reports $80,912. Local pay is set by ordinance rather than a State schedule, so spreads inside one county are wide.
How long do people stay at South Orange Village?
The median enrolled member has 9.6 years of credited service, and 26% 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.