Word Processing Specialist Family
Career series with 3 positions across 3 levels
New Jersey classifies Word Processing Specialist as a 3-level family, 3 titles in all, built for step-by-step advancement.
Entry is typically through Word Processing Specialist 3, advancing through the ladder toward Word Processing Specialist 1. Pay across the family spans $39,358 to $73,902, around the 10th percentile of all civil service job families by top pay. State payroll records show 3 people across the family's titles, most concentrated at Office of the Public Defender.
Word Processing Specialist commonly advances into Program Specialist and Hazardous Site Mitigation Specialist.
Positions in This Family
- WORD PROCESSING SPECIALIST 3 (22644) $39,358 - $56,481/year
- WORD PROCESSING SPECIALIST 2 (22645) $46,727 - $67,528/year
- WORD PROCESSING SPECIALIST 1 (22646) $50,990 - $73,902/year
What the Word Processing Specialist family covers
New Jersey classifies Word Processing Specialist as a 3-level series holding 3 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.
Office support is where New Jersey's classification plan is at its most granular. Typing, transcription, stenography, records, reception and general clerical duties each became their own series, and each series then split into state and local versions, which is why the catalog holds so many near-identical clerical codes. For applicants this granularity is mostly good news: it means a lot of separate eligible lists, most of them asking for a high school diploma and no experience, and it makes clerical work the most common way people enter the system and then transfer sideways.
The ladder, ordered by pay
Sorted by pay instead of by title number, the Word Processing Specialist 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.
- Word Processing Specialist 1 — $50,990 to $73,902 (3 years of experience)
- Word Processing Specialist 2 — $46,727 to $67,528 (2 years of experience)
- Word Processing Specialist 3 — $39,358 to $56,481 (1 year of experience)
The distance from the bottom of Word Processing Specialist 3 to the top of Word Processing Specialist 1 is $34,544, an increase of about 88% 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.
- Word Processing Specialist 3: Under direction of a Supervisor, Word Processing System, Manager Word Processing System, Word Processing Specialist 1 or an administrative official, in a…
- Word Processing Specialist 2: Under direction of an administrative officer, Supervisor, Word Processing System, or Manager, Word Processing System, Word Processing Specialist 1, in a state…
- Word Processing Specialist 1: Under direction of a Supervisor, Word Processing System, or a Manager, Word Processing System, takes the lead over five (5) or more word processing system…
Getting in: the stated requirements
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.
On how the jobs are filled: 3 are competitive, filled from an eligible list after an open competitive or promotional examination.
Who actually employs these titles
3 people appear on the state payroll under 1 of these title, at 3 agencies. Office of the Public Defender alone accounts for about 33% of them.
- Office of the Public Defender — 1 employee
- Health and Senior Services — 1 employee
- Law and Public Safety — 1 employee
Median actual pay for Word Processing Specialist 3 is $65,244, 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 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
Nearby in the plan, ranked by how distinctive the shared terms are rather than by how many words happen to match.
- Supervisor I. Word Processing Center ($63,663 to $92,953, state jurisdiction) — in the Supervisor family
- Data Processing Input/Output Control Specialist 2 ($55,691 to $81,008, state jurisdiction) — in the Data Processing Input/Output Control Specialist family
- Data Processing Analyst 1 — in the Data Processing Analyst family
- Data Processing Programmer (local jurisdiction)
- Data Processing Technician (local jurisdiction)
- Data Processing Coordinator (local jurisdiction)
Common questions about Word Processing Specialist jobs
How many separate Word Processing Specialist classifications does New Jersey have?
The Word Processing Specialist family holds 3 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 Word Processing Specialist paid?
Published salary data for this family runs from $39,358 at the bottom of Word Processing Specialist 3 to $73,902 at the top of Word Processing Specialist 1. 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 Word Processing Specialist?
Yes for most of the family. 3 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 are the requirements to become a Word Processing Specialist?
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.
Which agencies employ Word Processing Specialist staff?
State payroll records show 3 people in this family across 3 agencies, with Office of the Public Defender the largest at 1. Local government employers are not covered by that extract.
Is Word Processing Specialist 1 higher or lower than Word Processing Specialist 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.