NJ Civil Service Navigator

Social Worker Family

Career series with 13 positions across 2 levels

New Jersey classifies Social Worker as a 2-level family, 13 titles in all, built for step-by-step advancement.

Entry is typically through Social Worker 2, advancing through the ladder toward Social Worker 1 and, from there, into supervisory roles. Pay across the family spans $58,222 to $92,953, around the 23rd percentile of all civil service job families by top pay. State payroll records show 675 people across the family's titles, most concentrated at Health and Senior Services.

Social Worker reports to supervising titles such as Senior Food Service Worker - 12 Months and Assistant Family Service Worker.

13
Positions
2
Career Levels
9
Specializations
Salary Range: $58,222 - $92,953/year

Specializations

Bilingual In Spanish And English Corrections Corrections (bilingual In Spanish And English) Corrections-bilingual In Span & Engl Developmental Disabilities Institutions Nursing Home Psychiatric +1 more

Positions in This Family

What the Social Worker family covers

New Jersey classifies Social Worker as a 2-level series holding 13 separate title codes. The family straddles jurisdictions: 11 state and 2 local, so parts of it are hired by state departments and parts by local civil service employers.

Case-carrying titles are the largest civilian block in New Jersey government outside clerical work. They run through the Department of Children and Families, Human Services, county welfare and social services boards, and the guardianship and child support programs. The families are usually built as clean numbered ladders because caseload complexity is what separates one rung from the next, not a change of profession. A social work degree is common at the professional levels, though many of the specialist and technician titles admit experience instead.

The ladder, ordered by pay

Sorted by pay instead of by title number, the Social Worker family stacks up as follows. 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.

The distance from the bottom of Social Worker 2 to the top of Social Worker 1, Corrections (bilingual in Spanish and English) is $34,731, an increase of about 60% 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.

  • Senior Social Worker, Institutions: Under direction in an institution, performs the more responsible office and field work and/or takes the lead over a small unit involved in providing…
  • Senior Social Worker, Nursing Home: Under direction in a long term care facility (nursing home) setting, performs the more difficult work and/or takes the lead over a small unit involved…
  • Social Worker 2: Under the jurisdiction of a supervisory officer in a state department, hospital, training school, agency, or research unit, does the field and office work involved in…
  • Social Worker 2 Corrections: Under the direction of a supervisory officer in a State correctional institution or facility assumes a caseload of an appropriate number of inmates and…
  • Social Worker 2, Psychiatric / Deaf Language Specialist: Under the close supervision of a Social Work Supervisor or other supervisory official in the Department of Health or the…
  • Social Worker 2 Bilingual in Spanish and English: Under the jurisdiction of a supervisory officer in a state department, hospital, training school, agency, or research unit, does the…
  • Social Worker 2 Corrections-Bilingual in Span & Engl: Under the direction of a supervisory officer in a State correctional institution or facility assumes a caseload of an appropriate…
  • Social Worker 1: Under direction of a supervisory official in a state department, hospital, training school, research unit, or agency, is responsible for the more difficult and complex…

Showing 8 of 12 published definitions in this family. The full list of titles is below.

Getting in: the stated requirements

Across the 13 titles we have parsed, the education requirements read as a master's degree on 10 of them and a bachelor's degree on 3 of them. Stated experience runs from 1 year at the lowest rung to 2 at the highest, which is the main thing separating one level from the next.

1 of the 13 titles carry a license or certification requirement. On how the jobs are filled: 13 are competitive, filled from an eligible list after an open competitive or promotional examination. 5 titles in this family are 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

675 people appear on the state payroll under 10 of these titles, at 5 agencies. Health and Senior Services alone accounts for about 51% of them.

  • Health and Senior Services — 345 employees
  • Juvenile Justice Commission — 165 employees
  • Human Services — 85 employees
  • Military and Veterans Affairs — 55 employees
  • State Parole Board — 25 employees

Median actual pay varies across the family, from $66,511 for Social Worker 2 up to $81,320 for Social Worker 1, Corrections (bilingual in Spanish and English). 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

Because the family mixes jurisdictions, the answer to "who hires this" depends on the specific code. State codes run through the Civil Service Commission's announcement and eligible list process; local codes are hired by the counties, municipalities and authorities that adopted civil service under Title 11A. Check an employer's status before assuming a title is available where you live.

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.

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 Social Worker.

Common questions about Social Worker jobs

How many separate Social Worker classifications does New Jersey have?

The Social Worker family holds 13 title codes arranged across 2 levels. Each code is a separate classification with its own published specification, requirements and salary treatment.

How much is a Social Worker paid?

Published salary data for this family runs from $58,222 at the bottom of Social Worker 2 to $92,953 at the top of Social Worker 1, Corrections (bilingual in Spanish and English). 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 Social Worker?

Yes for most of the family. 13 of the 13 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 Social Worker?

The most common education requirement in this family is a master's degree, named on 10 of the 13 titles. Stated experience ranges from 1 to 2 years depending on the rung. 1 of the titles also require a license or certification. Read the individual specification for the exact wording, including any experience substitution.

Which agencies employ Social Worker staff?

State payroll records show 675 people in this family across 5 agencies, with Health and Senior Services the largest at 345. Local government employers are not covered by that extract.

Is Social Worker 1 higher or lower than Social Worker 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.