South Plainfield
Municipality · Middlesex County
140 people are enrolled in a State pension fund through South Plainfield, reporting a median pensionable salary of $84,763.
South Plainfield, 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.
South Plainfield 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 South Plainfield
140 people are enrolled in a State-administered pension fund through South Plainfield. 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 | 81 | 58% |
| PFRS | Police and Firemen's Retirement System | 59 | 42% |
Within PFRS, the fund records 59 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 Plainfield 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 South Plainfield.
Pensionable salary at South Plainfield
Half of the pension-enrolled workforce at South Plainfield reports a pensionable salary above $84,763 and half below, across 140 members with a reported figure.
| Point in the distribution | Pensionable salary |
|---|---|
| 10th percentile | $44,543 |
| 25th percentile | $58,694 |
| Median | $84,763 |
| 75th percentile | $133,897 |
| 90th percentile | $157,977 |
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 73rd percentile, above the county's midpoint of $75,739. Against the 194 bodies of the same kind statewide, it sits at the 77th 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 Plainfield
The median enrolled member at South Plainfield has 11.9 years of credited service, with the middle half falling between 5.6 and 20.5 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 | 32 | 23% |
| 5 to 10 years | 30 | 21% |
| 10 to 15 years | 23 | 16% |
| 15 to 20 years | 16 | 11% |
| 20 to 25 years | 24 | 17% |
| 25 years or more | 15 | 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 South Plainfield, 34% sit in the most recently hired cohort.
| Membership tier | Members | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Tier 1 (longest-serving cohort) | 49 | 35% |
| Tier 2 | 4 | 3% |
| Tier 3 | 38 | 27% |
| Tier 4 | 2 | 1% |
| Tier 5 (most recently hired cohort) | 47 | 34% |
Other public employers in South Plainfield Borough
The pension system reports these separate public employers in South Plainfield Borough. 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 PLAINFIELD BD OF ED | 492 |
| SOUTH PLAINFIELD BOROUGH (this page) | 140 |
What civil service status means for jobs at South Plainfield
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 South Plainfield Borough
South Plainfield Borough appears in the Commission's listing in its own right, so the borough government is the appointing authority for its own classified staff.
One other South Plainfield Borough body is listed separately: South Plainfield Library, a public library. It is a distinct employer with its own hiring, so a job there is not a job with the borough, and permanent status earned at one does not carry to the other.
- South Plainfield 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 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 Library, Woodbridge Fire Districts (9). See all 19 in Middlesex County.
Common questions about South Plainfield
Is South Plainfield a civil service employer?
Yes. South Plainfield 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 Plainfield cover the rest of South Plainfield Borough?
No. South Plainfield Borough 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.
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.
Does the Civil Service Commission decide who gets hired?
No. The Commission runs the examination, ranks the candidates and certifies the list. The employer is the appointing authority: it decides whether to fill the position at all and which of the reachable candidates to appoint. That division is why a high score improves your odds without guaranteeing anything.
How many South Plainfield employees are in a State pension system?
140 active memberships are reported through South Plainfield, split across 81 in PERS and 59 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 Plainfield?
$84,763, with the middle half of members between $58,694 and $133,897. 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 Plainfield compare with the rest of Middlesex County?
Its median pensionable salary of $84,763 sits at the 73rd 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 South Plainfield?
The median enrolled member has 11.9 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.