Vernon Township
Municipality · Sussex County
98 people are enrolled in a State pension fund through Vernon Township, reporting a median pensionable salary of $73,944.
Vernon Township, a municipality in Sussex County, operates under New Jersey's Title 11A civil service system rather than setting its own hiring rules independently.
Within Sussex County, 17 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.
Vernon Township Police Department — discipline and transparency records via PoliceTransparencyNJ
See all 17 civil service jurisdictions in Sussex County, or browse the full employer directory.
Who is on the pension rolls at Vernon Township
98 people are enrolled in a State-administered pension fund through Vernon 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| PERS | Public Employees' Retirement System | 65 | 66% |
| PFRS | Police and Firemen's Retirement System | 33 | 34% |
Within PFRS, the fund records 33 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 Vernon Township actually appoints.
Pensionable salary at Vernon Township
Half of the pension-enrolled workforce at Vernon Township reports a pensionable salary above $73,944 and half below, across 98 members with a reported figure.
| Point in the distribution | Pensionable salary |
|---|---|
| 10th percentile | $55,331 |
| 25th percentile | $63,387 |
| Median | $73,944 |
| 75th percentile | $105,000 |
| 90th percentile | $146,205 |
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 13 civil service jurisdictions in the same county with pension data, that median sits at the 77th percentile, above the county's midpoint of $63,156. Against the 194 bodies of the same kind statewide, it sits at the 51st 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 Vernon Township
The median enrolled member at Vernon Township has 10.6 years of credited service, with the middle half falling between 6.1 and 21 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 | 22 | 22% |
| 5 to 10 years | 22 | 22% |
| 10 to 15 years | 17 | 17% |
| 15 to 20 years | 9 | 9% |
| 20 to 25 years | 17 | 17% |
| 25 years or more | 11 | 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 Vernon Township, 44% sit in the most recently hired cohort.
| Membership tier | Members | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Tier 1 (longest-serving cohort) | 34 | 35% |
| Tier 2 | 2 | 2% |
| Tier 3 | 19 | 19% |
| Tier 5 (most recently hired cohort) | 43 | 44% |
Other public employers in Vernon Township
The pension system reports these separate public employers in Vernon 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 |
|---|---|
| VERNON TOWNSHIP BD OF ED | 424 |
| VERNON TOWNSHIP (this page) | 98 |
What civil service status means for jobs at Vernon 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.
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.
When there is no eligible list for a title, an employer can fill the job provisionally. Provisional service is real work at real pay, but it builds no permanent rights, and the employer is supposed to request an examination so the position can be filled permanently. Anyone appointed provisionally who wants to keep the job needs to take that examination when it comes.
Civil service employers in Vernon Township
Vernon Township appears in the Commission's listing in its own right, so the township government is the appointing authority for its own classified staff.
One other Vernon Township body is listed separately: Vernon Township Board of Health, a board of health. It is a distinct employer with its own hiring, so a job there is not a job with the township, and permanent status earned at one does not carry to the other.
- Vernon Township Board of Health, board of health
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 Sussex County
Sussex County holds 17 confirmed jurisdictions in the Commission's listing: 12 municipalities, 3 boards of health, 1 county government, and 1 public library.
12 of the county's 24 municipalities are among them.
Sussex 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: Wantage Township, Andover Board of Health, Andover Township, Byram Township, Green Township, Hampton Township, Hampton Township Board of Health, Hopatcong. See all 17 in Sussex County.
Common questions about Vernon Township
Is Vernon Township a civil service employer?
Yes. Vernon 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 Vernon Township cover the rest of Vernon Township?
No. Vernon 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.
Do veterans get a preference on these lists?
Yes, and in New Jersey it is unusually strong. On an open competitive list, disabled veterans who pass are ranked ahead of all other candidates, and other veterans who pass are ranked ahead of non-veterans, regardless of score. Preference has to be claimed and verified in advance, and it does not carry over to promotional examinations.
Do you have to live in New Jersey to work here?
Generally yes. The New Jersey First Act requires public employees hired after September 1, 2011 to live in the state, with a grace period for new hires to relocate and a narrow exemption process. Separately, individual examination announcements sometimes carry a local residency preference, which affects the order of the list rather than eligibility.
How many Vernon Township employees are in a State pension system?
98 active memberships are reported through Vernon Township, split across 65 in PERS and 33 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 Vernon Township?
$73,944, with the middle half of members between $63,387 and $105,000. 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 Vernon Township compare with the rest of Sussex County?
Its median pensionable salary of $73,944 sits at the 77th percentile among the 13 civil service jurisdictions in Sussex County with pension data, where the midpoint jurisdiction reports $63,156. Local pay is set by ordinance rather than a State schedule, so spreads inside one county are wide.
How long do people stay at Vernon Township?
The median enrolled member has 10.6 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.