Occupational Therapist Family
Career series with 3 positions across 1 levels
Occupational Therapist is a career-ladder family in New Jersey civil service, with 3 titles spanning 1 level.
The family is anchored by Occupational Therapist 10 Month. Pay across the family spans $53,282 to $122,832, around the 48th percentile of all civil service job families by top pay. State payroll records show 33 people across the family's titles, most concentrated at Health and Senior Services.
Occupational Therapist reports to supervising titles such as Occupational Therapy Assistant and Principal Occupational Therapist.
Specializations
Positions in This Family
- PRINCIPAL OCCUPATIONAL THERAPIST (03674) $83,582 - $122,832/year
- OCCUPATIONAL THERAPIST 10 MONTH (09057) $53,282 - $77,371/year
- SENIOR OCCUPATIONAL THERAPIST (09058) $60,876 - $88,743/year
What the Occupational Therapist family covers
Occupational Therapist is a rank rather than a single job. New Jersey applies it across 1 specialization, which together account for 3 title 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.
Clinical titles staff the state psychiatric hospitals, the developmental centers, the veterans homes and the county health departments. Licensure usually does the gatekeeping that an exam does elsewhere, so the qualification text points at a board registration rather than a test score, and the competitive exam is often an evaluation of credentials. This is also the corner of the compendium where the state pays to fill vacancies faster: several health care titles can be hired above the bottom step under the special incentive program.
The ladder, ordered by pay
Ordered by what they actually pay rather than by the number in the title, the Occupational Therapist rungs look like this.
- Principal Occupational Therapist — $83,582 to $122,832 (3 years of experience)
- Senior Occupational Therapist — $60,876 to $88,743 (2 years of experience)
- Occupational Therapist 10 Month — $53,282 to $77,371 (1 year of experience)
The distance from the bottom of Occupational Therapist 10 Month to the top of Principal Occupational Therapist is $69,550, an increase of about 131% over the entry minimum.
What each title does
Each title in the family carries its own published definition. These are the opening lines of each one, which is usually where the difference between two neighboring rungs is actually stated.
- Principal Occupational Therapist: Under the direction of a supervisory officer in an institution or agency, provides program leadership, development, coordination and supervision for a…
- Occupational Therapist 10 Month: Under the direction of a Senior Occupational Therapist or other supervisor, assists in the professional occupational therapy program; may be assigned the…
- Senior Occupational Therapist: Under the direction of a supervisory officer in an institution or agency provides training in occupational therapy to residents and may…
What it takes to qualify
None of the specifications in this family names a degree requirement, which places these titles among the New Jersey positions open to applicants without formal higher education. Stated experience runs from 1 year at the lowest rung to 3 at the highest, which is the main thing separating one level from the next.
Every title here carries a license or certification requirement, so the credential matters more than the exam score. On how the jobs are filled: 2 are competitive, filled from an eligible list after an open competitive or promotional examination and 1 is non-competitive, appointed on proof of the stated qualifications rather than by examination. 1 title in this family is covered by the compendium's special incentive program, which lets an appointing authority hire a qualified candidate above the bottom step instead of starting them at step one. See the full list of incentive titles.
Who actually employs these titles
State payroll records show 33 people working under 2 of this family's titles, spread across 2 agencies. Health and Senior Services alone accounts for about 61% of them.
- Health and Senior Services — 20 employees
- Human Services — 13 employees
Median actual pay varies across the family, from $90,084 for Senior Occupational Therapist up to $118,678 for Principal Occupational Therapist. 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
These are state titles, hired by New Jersey departments, commissions and boards through the Civil Service Commission's announcement and eligible list process rather than by an ordinary job posting. How state hiring works, and which agencies employ what.
Related titles elsewhere in the plan
These titles sit elsewhere in the classification plan but share vocabulary with Occupational Therapist, which usually means overlapping duties or a related eligible list.
- Occupational Therapist (local jurisdiction)
- Occupational Therapist All Jurisdictions ($63,663 to $92,953, state jurisdiction)
- Principal Occupational Therapist 10 Month ($69,668 to $101,951, state jurisdiction) — in the Principal Occupational Therapist family
- Senior Occupational Therapist All Jurisdictions ($72,896 to $106,798, state jurisdiction)
- Art Therapist (local jurisdiction)
- Therapist, Art ($60,876 to $88,743, state jurisdiction)
Common questions about Occupational Therapist jobs
How many Occupational Therapist titles are there in New Jersey civil service?
The Occupational Therapist family holds 3 title codes. Each code is a separate classification with its own published specification, requirements and salary treatment.
What does an Occupational Therapist earn in New Jersey?
Published salary data for this family runs from $53,282 at the bottom of Occupational Therapist 10 Month to $122,832 at the top of Principal Occupational Therapist. Those are schedule figures. Where the title appears on the state payroll, actual median pay is listed on the page above.
Do you need to take an exam to become an Occupational Therapist?
Yes for most of the family. 2 of the 3 titles are in the competitive division, which means appointment comes from an eligible list built by an open competitive or promotional examination.
What qualifications does an Occupational Therapist need?
No degree requirement is parsed from the specifications in this family, which puts these titles among the New Jersey civil service jobs reachable without formal higher education. Experience of 1 to 3 years is named where a requirement is stated. 3 of the titles require a license or certification.
Which agencies employ Occupational Therapist staff?
State payroll records show 33 people in this family across 2 agencies, with Health and Senior Services the largest at 20. Local government employers are not covered by that extract.