Staff Assistant Family
Career series with 4 positions across 2 levels
Staff Assistant is a career-ladder family in New Jersey civil service, with 4 titles spanning 2 levels.
Entry is typically through Staff Assistant 2, advancing through the ladder toward Staff Assistant 1. Pay across the family spans $48,807 to $81,008, around the 17th percentile of all civil service job families by top pay. State payroll records show 17 people across the family's titles, most concentrated at Military and Veterans Affairs.
Staff Assistant commonly advances into Principal Staff Officer.
Positions in This Family
- STAFF ASSISTANT 2 (34361) $50,990 - $73,902/year
- STAFF ASSISTANT 2 (34362) $48,807 - $70,641/year
- STAFF ASSISTANT 1 (34363) $53,282 - $77,371/year
- STAFF ASSISTANT 1 (34364) $55,691 - $81,008/year
What the Staff Assistant family covers
New Jersey classifies Staff Assistant as a 2-level series holding 4 separate 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.
Clerical series are the entry door to New Jersey civil service and the largest group by headcount. They are also the most duplicated: nearly every one exists in both a state and a local version, and the local versions are what municipal clerks, county offices and boards of education hire against. Most require a high school diploma and nothing more, which makes them the practical route in for applicants without a degree. Advancement runs by responsibility, from clerk to senior to principal to head, with the specialised transcription and stenography variants branching off partway up.
The ladder, ordered by pay
Sorted by pay instead of by title number, the Staff Assistant 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.
- Staff Assistant 1 — $55,691 to $81,008 (a bachelor's degree)
- Staff Assistant 1 — $53,282 to $77,371 (a bachelor's degree)
- Staff Assistant 2 — $50,990 to $73,902 (a bachelor's degree)
- Staff Assistant 2 — $48,807 to $70,641 (a bachelor's degree)
The distance from the bottom of Staff Assistant 2 to the top of Staff Assistant 1 is $32,200, an increase of about 66% 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.
- Staff Assistant 2: Under direction of a Principal Staff Officer or a Special Staff Officer, serves as a primary assistant in matters of a varied…
- Staff Assistant 1: Under direction of a Principal Staff Officer or a Special Staff Officer…
Getting in: the stated requirements
Across the 4 titles we have parsed, the education requirements read as a bachelor's degree on 4 of them. On how the jobs are filled: 4 are unclassified, which means appointment at the employer's discretion and salary set individually.
Who actually employs these titles
State payroll records show 17 people working under 2 of this family's titles, spread across 2 agencies. Military and Veterans Affairs alone accounts for about 88% of them.
- Military and Veterans Affairs — 15 employees
- Unknown — 2 employees
Median actual pay varies across the family, from $59,814 for Staff Assistant 2 up to $73,376 for Staff Assistant 1. 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
Nearby in the plan, ranked by how distinctive the shared terms are rather than by how many words happen to match.
- Chief of Staff (both state and local jurisdiction) — in the Chief family
- Staff Assistant (state jurisdiction)
- General Staff Officer ($75,474 to $105,655, state jurisdiction)
- General Staff Officer ($115,536 to $170,731, state jurisdiction)
- Special Staff Officer 3 ($60,876 to $88,743, state jurisdiction) — in the Special Staff Officer family
- Principal Staff Officer 3 ($79,844 to $117,228, state jurisdiction) — in the Principal Staff Officer family
Common questions about Staff Assistant jobs
How many Staff Assistant titles are there in New Jersey civil service?
The Staff Assistant family holds 4 title codes arranged across 2 levels. Each code is a separate classification with its own published specification, requirements and salary treatment.
What does a Staff Assistant earn in New Jersey?
Published salary data for this family runs from $48,807 at the bottom of Staff Assistant 2 to $81,008 at the top of Staff Assistant 1. 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 a Staff Assistant?
Mostly no. 4 of the 4 titles here are unclassified, so appointment is at the employer's discretion rather than from an eligible list, and salary is set individually rather than by a published step. That also makes cross-agency salary comparison less reliable for these titles.
What qualifications does a Staff Assistant need?
The most common education requirement in this family is a bachelor's degree, named on 4 of the 4 titles. Read the individual specification for the exact wording, including any experience substitution.
Which agencies employ Staff Assistant staff?
State payroll records show 17 people in this family across 2 agencies, with Military and Veterans Affairs the largest at 15. Local government employers are not covered by that extract.
Is Staff Assistant 1 higher or lower than Staff Assistant 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.