NJ Civil Service Navigator

Planning Associate Family

Career series with 15 positions across 3 levels

New Jersey classifies Planning Associate as a 3-level family, 15 titles in all, built for step-by-step advancement.

Entry is typically through Planning Associate 1, advancing through the ladder toward Planning Associate 2. Pay across the family spans $83,582 to $148,187, around the 78th percentile of all civil service job families by top pay. State payroll records show 541 people across the family's titles, most concentrated at Education.

Planning Associate reports to supervising titles such as Assistant Engineer, Planning and Senior Engineer, Planning.

15
Positions
3
Career Levels
5
Specializations
Salary Range: $83,582 - $148,187/year

Specializations

Computer Applications & Systems Design Computer Applications And Systems Design Policy And Planning School/education Programs Statistics/data Analysis

Positions in This Family

What the Planning Associate family covers

Planning Associate covers 15 title codes arranged into 3 levels of responsibility. Every title in it is a state title, so the employer is a state department, commission or authority rather than a county or municipality.

Analyst and planner titles are where New Jersey puts the work of deciding rather than delivering: land use, capital programming, rate setting, program evaluation and policy research. Many exist at the local level because municipal and county planning boards were early adopters of civil service, so the family may hold only local codes even when the same work happens at the state under a different name. The qualification pattern is consistent, a bachelor's degree at entry with experience substituting upward, and the ladders are usually clean numbered progressions.

The ladder, ordered by pay

The Planning Associate rungs, listed from the best paid down. Note that the numbers in these titles do not run in pay order. In this family a lower number sits higher on the ladder, which is a New Jersey convention that catches people out when they read a title list top to bottom.

Showing the 12 best paid of 15 titles with published salary data.

The distance from the bottom of Planning Associate 1 to the top of Planning Associate 3, School/Education Programs is $64,605, an increase of about 77% over the entry minimum.

What each title does

Reading the definitions side by side is the quickest way to see what changes as you move through the family.

Showing 8 of 15 published definitions in this family. The full list of titles is below.

Requirements across the family

Across the 15 titles we have parsed, the education requirements read as a master's degree on 15 of them. Stated experience runs from 3 years at the lowest rung to 5 at the highest, which is the main thing separating one level from the next.

On how the jobs are filled: 1 is competitive, filled from an eligible list after an open competitive or promotional examination and 14 are non-competitive, appointed on proof of the stated qualifications rather than by examination.

Who actually employs these titles

541 people appear on the state payroll under 13 of these titles, at 10 agencies. Education alone accounts for about 88% of them.

  • Education — 477 employees
  • Environmental Protection — 16 employees
  • Office of Administrative Law — 12 employees
  • Banking and Insurance — 8 employees
  • Treasury — 8 employees
  • Children and Families — 4 employees

Those are the 6 largest of 10 agencies employing this family.

Median actual pay varies across the family, from $103,509 for Planning Associate 1, School/Education Programs up to $143,176 for Planning Associate 3, Statistics/Data Analysis. 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

Other classifications built on the same terms as Planning Associate. Worth checking if this family has no current opening.

Families next to this one

New Jersey's classification plan links families by shared terminology and by the routes people actually take between them. These sit closest to Planning Associate.

Common questions about Planning Associate jobs

How many separate Planning Associate classifications does New Jersey have?

The Planning Associate family holds 15 title codes arranged across 3 levels. Each code is a separate classification with its own published specification, requirements and salary treatment.

How much is a Planning Associate paid?

Published salary data for this family runs from $83,582 at the bottom of Planning Associate 1 to $148,187 at the top of Planning Associate 3, School/Education Programs. 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 Planning Associate?

Not for the non-competitive titles in this family, of which there are 14. A non-competitive appointment is made on proof that you meet the stated requirements, without a competitive examination, though the position is still in the classified service with its own protections.

What are the requirements to become a Planning Associate?

The most common education requirement in this family is a master's degree, named on 15 of the 15 titles. Stated experience ranges from 3 to 5 years depending on the rung. Read the individual specification for the exact wording, including any experience substitution.

Which agencies employ Planning Associate staff?

State payroll records show 541 people in this family across 10 agencies, with Education the largest at 477. Local government employers are not covered by that extract.

Is Planning Associate 1 higher or lower than Planning Associate 3?

In this family the lower number is the more senior title. New Jersey's level numbering does not run in pay order, and reading the titles by number alone will give you the ladder upside down. The list above is sorted by what each title actually pays.