New Jersey ranks as the 11th healthiest state in the country according to the United Health Foundation. Its public health strengths include a low rate of smoking and a low incidence of infectious diseases. In addition, New Jersey has a very low rate of traffic fatalities when compared to the rest of the US.
State public health funding in New Jersey totaled more than $230.5 million in fiscal year 2013-14, while funding from the CDC contributed an additional $139.2 million that year. This level of funding for public health helps New Jersey hire the public health officials necessary to support groundbreaking initiatives, and contributes to an increase in the level of compensation these professionals earn.
The New Jersey Department of Public Health and its Department of Environmental Protection are the state’s flagship public health organizations. They emphasize prevention when it comes to chronic illness and disease, and are dedicated to monitoring diseases and environmental hazards. State regulations require health care providers, schools, correctional facilities, and local health departments to report communicable diseases to the Department of Public Health. This enables its epidemiologists to catch outbreaks, as was the case with the nine cases of meningococcal disease at Princeton University in 2013-14. Aggressive vaccination of incoming and current students helped to prevent the spread of this illness.
Environmental health professionals track a number of potential hazards in New Jersey, including preventable hazards like high levels of radon in residents’ homes. One of the objectives of Healthy New Jersey 2020 is to increase the mitigation of this carcinogen.
State and local public health officials in New Jersey work in concert with their colleagues in healthcare, academia, and non-governmental organizations to further improve the level of public health in the state, and they enjoy good compensation while doing so.
Salaries Among Public Health Professionals in Newark
The New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development provides salaries for a number of different types of public health officials who worked in the Newark-Union area in 2013. Although some of these salaries vary substantially, highly educated public health professionals such as those with a Master of Public Health are likely to earn on the high end of the ranges provided.
An Analysis of Public Health Professional Salaries in New Jersey
The US Bureau of Labor Statistics provides a detailed breakdown of the hourly wages and annual salaries of public health professionals who worked in New Jersey in 2014.
