Wood-Ridge Borough
Municipality · Bergen County
72 people are enrolled in a State pension fund through Wood-Ridge Borough, reporting a median pensionable salary of $82,089.
Wood-Ridge Borough is a confirmed New Jersey civil service jurisdiction — a municipality in Bergen County that has adopted Title 11A of the New Jersey Statutes to govern how it hires, classifies, and promotes employees.
Bergen County has 50 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.
Wood-Ridge Police Department — discipline and transparency records via PoliceTransparencyNJ
See all 50 civil service jurisdictions in Bergen County, or browse the full employer directory.
Who is on the pension rolls at Wood-Ridge Borough
72 people are enrolled in a State-administered pension fund through Wood-Ridge Borough. 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 | 47 | 65% |
| PFRS | Police and Firemen's Retirement System | 25 | 35% |
Within PFRS, the fund records 25 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 Wood-Ridge Borough 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 Wood-Ridge Borough.
Pensionable salary at Wood-Ridge Borough
Half of the pension-enrolled workforce at Wood-Ridge Borough reports a pensionable salary above $82,089 and half below, across 72 members with a reported figure.
| Point in the distribution | Pensionable salary |
|---|---|
| 10th percentile | $13,380 |
| 25th percentile | $46,375 |
| Median | $82,089 |
| 75th percentile | $109,996 |
| 90th percentile | $131,318 |
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 25 civil service jurisdictions in the same county with pension data, that median sits at the 64th percentile, above the county's midpoint of $80,210. Against the 194 bodies of the same kind statewide, it sits at the 73rd 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 Wood-Ridge Borough
The median enrolled member at Wood-Ridge Borough has 10.5 years of credited service, with the middle half falling between 4.3 and 22.9 years. 38% 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 | 20 | 28% |
| 5 to 10 years | 14 | 19% |
| 10 to 15 years | 6 | 8% |
| 15 to 20 years | 5 | 7% |
| 20 to 25 years | 12 | 17% |
| 25 years or more | 15 | 21% |
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 Wood-Ridge Borough, 35% sit in the most recently hired cohort.
| Membership tier | Members | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Tier 1 (longest-serving cohort) | 30 | 42% |
| Tier 2 | 1 | 1% |
| Tier 3 | 16 | 22% |
| Tier 5 (most recently hired cohort) | 25 | 35% |
Other public employers in Wood-Ridge Borough
The pension system reports these separate public employers in Wood-Ridge 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 |
|---|---|
| WOOD-RIDGE BD OF ED | 174 |
| WOOD-RIDGE BOROUGH (this page) | 72 |
What civil service status means for jobs at Wood-Ridge Borough
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 Wood-Ridge Borough
Wood-Ridge 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 Wood-Ridge Borough body is listed separately: Wood-Ridge 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.
- Wood-Ridge 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 Bergen County
Bergen County holds 50 confirmed jurisdictions in the Commission's listing: 21 municipalities, 20 public libraries, 4 boards of health, 1 board of social services, 1 county government, 1 housing authority, 1 school district, and 1 municipal utilities authority.
21 of the county's 70 municipalities are among them.
Bergen 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: Ridgewood Library, Ridgewood Village, Rutherford Borough, Rutherford Library, Saddle Brook Library, Saddle Brook Township, Teaneck Library, Teaneck Township. See all 50 in Bergen County.
Common questions about Wood-Ridge Borough
Is Wood-Ridge Borough a civil service employer?
Yes. Wood-Ridge Borough 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 Wood-Ridge Borough cover the rest of Wood-Ridge Borough?
No. Wood-Ridge 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.
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.
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.
How many Wood-Ridge Borough employees are in a State pension system?
72 active memberships are reported through Wood-Ridge Borough, split across 47 in PERS and 25 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 Wood-Ridge Borough?
$82,089, with the middle half of members between $46,375 and $109,996. 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 Wood-Ridge Borough compare with the rest of Bergen County?
Its median pensionable salary of $82,089 sits at the 64th percentile among the 25 civil service jurisdictions in Bergen County with pension data, where the midpoint jurisdiction reports $80,210. Local pay is set by ordinance rather than a State schedule, so spreads inside one county are wide.
How long do people stay at Wood-Ridge Borough?
The median enrolled member has 10.5 years of credited service, and 38% 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.