Pension salary data · Analysis
What New Jersey pays police, and what it pays school staff
Two workforces, one pension snapshot, the same salary basis. Both groups report a pensionable salary to the state, on the same date, in the same file, which makes a within-county comparison possible without stitching together outside data. This page sets the median active police officer against the median active school staff member, statewide, by region, and for all 21 counties.[1]
Pensionable salary is not total pay for either group, and the two work years are not the same length. What these figures cannot tell you is stated in full below, and it is worth reading first.
Statewide
27,645 active police officers and 145,772 active TPAF members, across $3.1 billion and $12.8 billion of pensionable payroll respectively. 89% of school staff earn less than the median police officer.
Median pensionable salary in New Jersey
US dollars per year
| Police officers | $115,284 |
|---|---|
| School staff (TPAF) | $87,380 |
Across the whole range
How the two salary distributions overlap in New Jersey
Share of each group, by salary band
Pensionable salary. Vertical axis is share of each group, not headcount.
| Salary band | Police officers (share of 27,645) | School staff (TPAF) (share of 145,772) |
|---|---|---|
| $0k to $20k | 2.5% | 0.7% |
| $20k to $40k | 1.8% | 1.4% |
| $40k to $60k | 6.7% | 8.4% |
| $60k to $80k | 15.4% | 30.2% |
| $80k to $100k | 13.3% | 29.3% |
| $100k to $120k | 14.8% | 21.9% |
| $120k to $140k | 16.7% | 4.4% |
| $140k to $160k | 13.7% | 1.5% |
| $160k to $180k | 8.6% | 1.2% |
| $180k to $200k | 3.6% | 0.5% |
| $200k to $220k | 1.7% | 0.2% |
| $220k to $240k | 0.8% | 0.1% |
| $240k and above | 0.4% | 0.1% |
Adjusted for years of service
Crude ratio
1.32x
Median against median, as the groups actually stand
Tenure-adjusted ratio
1.39x
higher than the crude figure
Coverage
100%
Share of the reference service distribution the adjustment covers
Service-year bands used: under 5 years, 5 to 10 years, 10 to 15 years, 15 to 20 years, 20 to 25 years, 25 years or more. A band counts only when both groups have at least 20 people in it, and the whole figure is withheld rather than published when the contributing bands do not cover enough of the reference.
North, Central and South
Central Jersey
1.39x
$34,198 median gap · 94% of school staff below the median officer
North Jersey
1.32x
$28,982 median gap · 88% of school staff below the median officer
South Jersey
1.21x
$17,618 median gap · 83% of school staff below the median officer
County by county
Ratio of median police salary to median school-staff salary
Ratio of medians
Counties are grouped by rank into 6 equal-sized groups, compared against the other 20 shown here only. Shading is ratio of medians, not a grade or a judgment. Boundary values are printed above the ramp.
County outlines are generalized for display and are not legal boundaries.
| County | ratio of medians |
|---|---|
| Atlantic | 1.05x |
| Bergen | 1.65x |
| Burlington | 1.06x |
| Camden | 1.19x |
| Cape May | 1.10x |
| Cumberland | 1.05x |
| Essex | 1.28x |
| Gloucester | 1.32x |
| Hudson | 1.22x |
| Hunterdon | 1.30x |
| Mercer | 1.21x |
| Middlesex | 1.47x |
| Monmouth | 1.46x |
| Morris | 1.39x |
| Ocean | 1.61x |
| Passaic | 1.34x |
| Salem | 1.29x |
| Somerset | 1.38x |
| Sussex | 1.29x |
| Union | 1.37x |
| Warren | 1.27x |
Counties ranked
- 1Bergen1.65x (group 6 of 6, lowest to highest)
- 2Ocean1.61x (group 6 of 6, lowest to highest)
- 3Middlesex1.47x (group 6 of 6, lowest to highest)
- 4Monmouth1.46x (group 6 of 6, lowest to highest)
- 5Morris1.39x (group 5 of 6, lowest to highest)
- 6Somerset1.38x (group 5 of 6, lowest to highest)
- 7Union1.37x (group 5 of 6, lowest to highest)
- 8Passaic1.34x (group 4 of 6, lowest to highest)
- 9Gloucester1.32x (group 4 of 6, lowest to highest)
- 10Hunterdon1.30x (group 4 of 6, lowest to highest)
- 11Salem1.29x (group 3 of 6, lowest to highest)
- 12Sussex1.29x (group 3 of 6, lowest to highest)
- 13Essex1.28x (group 3 of 6, lowest to highest)
- 14Warren1.27x (group 3 of 6, lowest to highest)
- 15Hudson1.22x (group 2 of 6, lowest to highest)
- 16Mercer1.21x (group 2 of 6, lowest to highest)
- 17Camden1.19x (group 2 of 6, lowest to highest)
- 18Cape May1.10x (group 1 of 6, lowest to highest)
- 19Burlington1.06x (group 1 of 6, lowest to highest)
- 20Atlantic1.05x (group 1 of 6, lowest to highest)
- 21Cumberland1.05x (group 1 of 6, lowest to highest)
Ratio of medians, March 31, 2026.
Not on this map: the State Police, the Department of Corrections, Transit Police, and other state-level agencies. They operate across county lines and the Attorney General reports them outside the county system, so their activity appears in no county here. They are in the rankings.
Every county, ranked
Ratio of medians
- Bergen County1.65x$59,323 gap
- Ocean County1.61x$49,100 gap
- Middlesex County1.47x$42,037 gap
- Monmouth County1.46x$40,055 gap
- Morris County1.39x$34,214 gap
- Somerset County1.38x$32,797 gap
- Union County1.37x$33,253 gap
- Passaic County1.34x$30,299 gap
- Gloucester County1.32x$26,050 gap
- Hunterdon County1.30x$24,823 gap
- Salem County1.29x$21,321 gap
- Sussex County1.29x$25,048 gap
- Essex County1.28x$25,579 gap
- Warren County1.27x$22,102 gap
- Hudson County1.22x$20,878 gap
- Mercer County1.21x$18,720 gap
- Camden County1.19x$15,733 gap
- Cape May County1.10x$8,098 gap
- Burlington County1.06x$4,901 gap
- Atlantic County1.05x$4,737 gap
- Cumberland County1.05x$3,871 gap
| Bergen County | 1.65x |
|---|---|
| Ocean County | 1.61x |
| Middlesex County | 1.47x |
| Monmouth County | 1.46x |
| Morris County | 1.39x |
| Somerset County | 1.38x |
| Union County | 1.37x |
| Passaic County | 1.34x |
| Gloucester County | 1.32x |
| Hunterdon County | 1.30x |
| Salem County | 1.29x |
| Sussex County | 1.29x |
| Essex County | 1.28x |
| Warren County | 1.27x |
| Hudson County | 1.22x |
| Mercer County | 1.21x |
| Camden County | 1.19x |
| Cape May County | 1.10x |
| Burlington County | 1.06x |
| Atlantic County | 1.05x |
| Cumberland County | 1.05x |
Scroll sideways for more columns →
A different police definition
The county figures above count municipal and county law enforcement. They exclude 5,450 officers at statewide employers (state prisons, NJ Transit, the Parole Board) and 85 at other state-level employers the source assigns to a county. Counting every PFRS officer the source places in a county instead moves the ratio as follows.
What these figures cannot tell you
- This is base salary, not total pay
- Pensionable base salary as reported to the pension system. It excludes overtime, stipends, longevity, off-duty detail pay and accrued-leave payouts for both groups. Actual compensation is higher for both, and this data cannot say by how much for either, so it cannot say which direction the omission moves the ratio.
- The work years are different lengths
- A school contract year and a police work year are not the same length. The source carries no work-year field, so these are annual salaries compared as reported, not pay per day or per hour.
- The school side is not only classroom teachers
- Every active member of the Teachers Pension and Annuity Fund. The fund covers certificated school staff and the file carries no job title, so principals, supervisors and other certificated staff are counted alongside classroom teachers. School support staff (aides, secretaries, custodians, drivers) are enrolled in PERS instead and are not counted here, so this is not a school payroll figure.
- The regions are a convention
- North, Central and South follow the state planning-region convention. The line between them is a convention, not a finding in the data, and where Ocean County belongs is genuinely disputed. County figures are shown underneath every regional figure so the grouping never hides anything.
- County means the employer, not the household
- A member is counted in the county the pension system assigns to their employer. That is not where anyone lives, and it is not a school district boundary. Regional districts and consolidated districts cross municipal lines.
- The two workforces are not the same age
- Police can retire after 25 years of service, so the active police workforce is systematically less senior than the active school workforce. Median police service years are lower than median school-staff service years in every county in the state. The tenure-adjusted figure on this page exists to answer that, and it is usually the higher of the two.
- A pay ratio is not a budget statement
- Municipal police payrolls and school payrolls draw on different tax levies and different state aid formulas. Nothing on this page says a dollar moved from one to the other, and nothing here should be read that way.
- One date, not a trend
- Every figure comes from a single snapshot dated March 31, 2026. There is no year-over-year comparison here, and none should be inferred.
- Small groups are withheld
- A county or department with fewer than 30 people on one side of the comparison publishes no figure for that side and no ratio, rather than a number a handful of salaries could swing.
The full method, including how the tenure adjustment is computed and exactly which rows enter each figure, is set out in the methodology. The row-by-row account is published in the machine-readable data.
Questions and answers
Do police in New Jersey make more than teachers?
On pensionable salary, yes, statewide. In the NJ Treasury snapshot dated March 31, 2026, the median active police officer's pensionable salary is $115,284 and the median active TPAF-enrolled school staff member's is $87,380, a ratio of 1.32x and a gap of $27,904 a year. The size of that gap varies widely: it runs from 1.05x in Cumberland County to 1.65x in Bergen County. Both figures are base pensionable salary, which excludes overtime, stipends and leave payouts for both groups.
Which New Jersey county has the biggest gap between police pay and teacher pay?
Bergen County, where the median officer's pensionable salary is 1.65x the median school staff member's, a difference of $59,323 a year. The narrowest is Cumberland County at 1.05x, a difference of $3,871.
Is this comparison fair, given that police can retire earlier?
That objection points the opposite way from what most people expect. Because police can retire after 25 years of service, the active police workforce is less senior than the active school workforce: median police service years are lower than median school-staff service years in every one of the 21 counties. This site therefore publishes a tenure-adjusted ratio alongside the crude one, re-weighting both groups onto a single distribution of service years. Statewide the adjusted figure is 1.39x against a crude 1.32x.
Where do these salary figures come from?
The New Jersey Department of the Treasury's public YourMoney active pension members file, snapshot dated March 31, 2026. Police are active members of the Police and Firemen's Retirement System in the POLICE OFFICER group, which excludes firefighters. School staff are active members of the Teachers Pension and Annuity Fund. Both sides are grouped by the county the pension system itself assigns to the employer, so nothing here depends on name matching. Neither figure is total compensation: pensionable salary excludes overtime, stipends, longevity and accrued-leave payouts for both groups.
Does this mean a town is spending school money on police?
No, and the figures cannot support that reading. Municipal police payrolls and school payrolls draw on different tax levies and different state aid formulas. This page compares what two workforces are paid in the same place. It does not trace a dollar from one budget to the other, and it makes no claim that it could.
Sources
- [1]YourMoney Active Pension Members (PFRS/SPRS subset) and YourMoney Active Pension Members (TPAF subset, names removed). New Jersey Department of the Treasury. Both snapshots as of March 31, 2026. Derived from the public YourMoney Active Pension Members dataset, https://www.yourmoney.nj.gov/. Figures are computed by this site from as-reported pensionable salaries; the row-by-row account of what entered each figure is published at /data/pay-comparison.json. ↩
- [2]New Jersey county boundaries. New Jersey Office of Information Technology, Office of GIS (NJOGIS). NJ_Counties_3857 (FeatureServer layer 0), https://services2.arcgis.com/XVOqAjTOJ5P6ngMu/arcgis/rest/services/NJ_Counties_3857/FeatureServer/0. 2020 boundary delineation. Retrieved 2026-07-27. Boundaries are generalized for display. This data set is not a survey document and must not be used as such. The polygons do not represent legal boundaries.