Union Township
Municipality · Union County
462 people are enrolled in a State pension fund through Union Township, reporting a median pensionable salary of $95,821.
Union Township is a confirmed New Jersey civil service jurisdiction — a municipality in Union County that has adopted Title 11A of the New Jersey Statutes to govern how it hires, classifies, and promotes employees.
Union County has 23 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.
Union Township Police Department — discipline and transparency records via PoliceTransparencyNJ
See all 23 civil service jurisdictions in Union County, or browse the full employer directory.
Who is on the pension rolls at Union Township
462 people are enrolled in a State-administered pension fund through Union Township. 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 | 257 | 56% |
| PERS | Public Employees' Retirement System | 205 | 44% |
Within PFRS, the fund records 145 police officers and 112 firefighters. PFRS enrolment is the only occupational detail this dataset carries; it lists no job titles, so nothing here says which civil service titles Union Township 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 Union Township.
Pensionable salary at Union Township
Half of the pension-enrolled workforce at Union Township reports a pensionable salary above $95,821 and half below, across 462 members with a reported figure.
| Point in the distribution | Pensionable salary |
|---|---|
| 10th percentile | $48,049 |
| 25th percentile | $65,561 |
| Median | $95,821 |
| 75th percentile | $130,403 |
| 90th percentile | $164,640 |
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 94th percentile, above the county's midpoint of $72,942. Against the 194 bodies of the same kind statewide, it sits at the 95th 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 Union Township
The median enrolled member at Union Township has 11.5 years of credited service, with the middle half falling between 4.8 and 21.1 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 | 118 | 26% |
| 5 to 10 years | 84 | 18% |
| 10 to 15 years | 79 | 17% |
| 15 to 20 years | 51 | 11% |
| 20 to 25 years | 81 | 18% |
| 25 years or more | 49 | 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 Union Township, 26% sit in the most recently hired cohort.
| Membership tier | Members | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Tier 1 (longest-serving cohort) | 160 | 35% |
| Tier 2 | 9 | 2% |
| Tier 3 | 167 | 36% |
| Tier 4 | 5 | 1% |
| Tier 5 (most recently hired cohort) | 121 | 26% |
Other public employers in Union Township
The pension system reports these separate public employers in Union 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 |
|---|---|
| UNION COUNTY | 1,259 |
| UNION TWP BD OF ED (UNION) | 1,029 |
| UNION TOWNSHIP (UNION) (this page) | 462 |
| UNION CO BD OF SOCIAL SERVICES | 402 |
| UNION TOWNSHIP LIBRARY | 18 |
| UNION CO UTILITIES AUTHORITY | 10 |
What civil service status means for jobs at Union Township
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.
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 Union Township
Union Township appears in the Commission's listing in its own right, so the township government is the appointing authority for its own classified staff.
Two other Union Township bodies hold civil service status separately from the township government, listed below. Each runs its own examinations and keeps its own eligible lists, so Union Township is really three employers rather than one.
- Union Township Board of Health, board of health
- Union Township 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 Union County
Union County holds 23 confirmed jurisdictions in the Commission's listing: 9 public libraries, 9 municipalities, 2 boards of health, 2 housing authorities, and 1 county government.
9 of the county's 21 municipalities are among them.
Union 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: Plainfield Library, Rahway, Rahway Library, Roselle Borough, Roselle Library, Scotch Plains, Scotch Plains Library, Union Township Board of Health. See all 23 in Union County.
Common questions about Union Township
Is Union Township a civil service employer?
Yes. Union Township 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 Union Township cover the rest of Union Township?
No. Union Township 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.
How long does it take to get hired through this process?
Longer than an ordinary job application, and the timing is not in the hands of the employer. An announcement has to close, the examination has to be held and scored, the eligible list has to be promulgated, and only then can the employer request a certification. Several months between filing and an appointment is normal rather than a sign that something has gone wrong.
How many Union Township employees are in a State pension system?
462 active memberships are reported through Union Township, split across 257 in PFRS and 205 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 Union Township?
$95,821, with the middle half of members between $65,561 and $130,403. 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 Union Township compare with the rest of Union County?
Its median pensionable salary of $95,821 sits at the 94th percentile among the 18 civil service jurisdictions in Union County with pension data, where the midpoint jurisdiction reports $72,942. Local pay is set by ordinance rather than a State schedule, so spreads inside one county are wide.
How long do people stay at Union Township?
The median enrolled member has 11.5 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.