Trooper Family
Career series with 1 positions across 1 levels
As an unclassified state title, Trooper 1 is filled by appointment, and its published pay band is more of a guide than a fixed grade.
Pay on the FY2027 schedule runs $86,569 to $131,815, and state payroll currently lists about 1,912 people in the title, most of them at Law and Public Safety.
Trooper is a single-title classification family: Trooper 1 is the only position in it.
Positions in This Family
- TROOPER 1 (31861) $86,569 - $131,815/year
What the Trooper family covers
Trooper is a single-title family in the New Jersey civil service classification plan: one title code, with no numbered rungs above or below it. Every title in it is a state title, so the employer is a state department, commission or authority rather than a county or municipality.
Sworn and investigative titles sit apart from the rest of civil service. They carry their own salary schedules, their own unions and, in most cases, an academy requirement and a medical and psychological screen on top of the exam. Rank is handled by moving between titles rather than by moving up a range, so the ladder here is a sequence of separate classifications. New Jersey also runs a large civilian investigative service alongside the sworn forces, and those titles follow ordinary competitive rules even though the work overlaps.
What each title does
The published specification opens with this definition of the work.
- Trooper 1: Under the direction of a Sergeant, Staff Sergeant or other supervisory officer in the Division of State Police, performs various phases of police work, including but not limited…
Requirements across the family
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. On how the jobs are filled: 1 is unclassified, which means appointment at the employer's discretion and salary set individually.
Who actually employs these titles
State payroll records show 1,912 people working under 1 of this family's title, spread across 1 agency. Law and Public Safety alone accounts for about 100% of them.
- Law and Public Safety — 1,912 employees
Median actual pay for Trooper 1 is $83,333, which is what people in the title are really paid rather than the published band.
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 T salary schedule. See every step in that schedule. Bargaining is handled by STFA. 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.
Common questions about Trooper jobs
How many Trooper titles are there in New Jersey civil service?
The Trooper family holds 1 title code. Each code is a separate classification with its own published specification, requirements and salary treatment.
What does a Trooper earn in New Jersey?
Trooper 1 is published at $86,569 to $131,815. Salary depends on the salary range assigned to the title and the step the employee has reached.
Do you need to take an exam to become a Trooper?
Mostly no. 1 of the 1 title 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 Trooper 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.
Which agencies employ Trooper staff?
State payroll records show 1,912 people in this family across 1 agency, with Law and Public Safety the largest at 1,912. Local government employers are not covered by that extract.