Laboratory Technician Family
Career series with 2 positions
Rather than one job, Laboratory Technician is a rank used across 2 different specializations in New Jersey civil service (2 codes total).
Specializations include Geoscience, and Plant Industry. Pay across the family spans $44,750 to $64,522, around the 4th percentile of all civil service job families by top pay. State payroll records show 32 people across the family's titles, most concentrated at Health and Senior Services.
Laboratory Technician is closely related to Electronic Systems Technician.
Specializations
Positions in This Family
- LABORATORY TECHNICIAN (PLANT INDUSTRY) (01922F) $44,750 - $64,522/year
- LABORATORY TECHNICIAN (GEOSCIENCE) (01922H) $44,750 - $64,522/year
What the Laboratory Technician family covers
Laboratory Technician works as an umbrella classification: 2 different specializations share the title across 2 codes. Every title in it is a state title, so the employer is a state department, commission or authority rather than a county or municipality.
The state runs working laboratories rather than research institutes, so scientific titles are tied to a statutory job: testing water and air, screening newborns, analysing evidence, monitoring pesticides, mapping geology. Degrees in a named field do the qualifying, and the exam is often an evaluation of education and experience rather than a written test. Because each laboratory is small, these families tend to be short ladders inside one agency instead of broad classifications spread across government.
The ladder, ordered by pay
Sorted by pay instead of by title number, the Laboratory Technician family stacks up as follows.
- Laboratory Technician (geoscience) — $44,750 to $64,522 (an associate's degree)
- Laboratory Technician (plant Industry) — $44,750 to $64,522 (an associate's degree)
The distance from the bottom of Laboratory Technician (plant Industry) to the top of Laboratory Technician (geoscience) is $19,772, an increase of about 44% over the entry minimum.
What each title does
The specifications themselves are the clearest guide to what separates these titles. Here is how each one opens.
- Laboratory Technician (plant Industry): Under the close supervision of a Principal Laboratory Technician, or other supervisory official, in the New Jersey Department of Agriculture…
- Laboratory Technician (geoscience): Under a supervisory official in a state department, institution, or agency, does and assists with laboratory technical work in a geoscience laboratory…
Getting in: the stated requirements
Across the 2 titles we have parsed, the education requirements read as an associate's degree on 2 of them. On how the jobs are filled: 2 are competitive, filled from an eligible list after an open competitive or promotional examination.
Who actually employs these titles
32 people appear on the state payroll under 2 of these titles, at 2 agencies. Health and Senior Services alone accounts for about 94% of them.
- Health and Senior Services — 30 employees
- Agriculture — 2 employees
Median actual pay varies across the family, from $50,878 for Laboratory Technician (plant Industry) up to $50,878 for Laboratory Technician (geoscience). Those are medians of what people are really paid, not schedule minimums and maximums.
State payroll only, deduplicated by payroll title; local employers file separately, so a family with local codes looks smaller here than it is. How this is counted.
How the pay is set
Titles in this family are paid on the A-P-R-S salary schedule. See every step in that schedule. Bargaining is handled by CWA. Union contracts and rights are collected here.
Where these jobs exist
Hiring for this family runs through state service. Departments, commissions and boards fill these titles from eligible lists built by the Civil Service Commission, so the route in is an announcement and a filing deadline rather than a posting you apply to directly. What state jurisdiction means, and a breakdown of who employs what.
Related titles elsewhere in the plan
Nearby in the plan, ranked by how distinctive the shared terms are rather than by how many words happen to match.
- Laboratory Technician ($44,750 to $64,522, state jurisdiction)
- Laboratory Technician ($48,807 to $70,641, state jurisdiction)
- Laboratory Technician (both state and local jurisdiction)
- Senior Laboratory Technician ($50,990 to $73,902, state jurisdiction)
- Senior Laboratory Technician (local jurisdiction)
- Clinical Laboratory Technician
Common questions about Laboratory Technician jobs
How many separate Laboratory Technician classifications does New Jersey have?
The Laboratory Technician family holds 2 title codes. Each code is a separate classification with its own published specification, requirements and salary treatment.
How much is a Laboratory Technician paid?
Published salary data for this family runs from $44,750 at the bottom of Laboratory Technician (plant Industry) to $64,522 at the top of Laboratory Technician (geoscience). Those are schedule figures. Where the title appears on the state payroll, actual median pay is listed on the page above.
Is there a civil service test for Laboratory Technician?
Yes for most of the family. 2 of the 2 titles are in the competitive division, which means appointment comes from an eligible list built by an open competitive or promotional examination.
What are the requirements to become a Laboratory Technician?
The most common education requirement in this family is an associate's degree, named on 2 of the 2 titles. Read the individual specification for the exact wording, including any experience substitution.
Which agencies employ Laboratory Technician staff?
State payroll records show 32 people in this family across 2 agencies, with Health and Senior Services the largest at 30. Local government employers are not covered by that extract.