DSNY Sanitation Worker exam — next exam dates & alerts

The most recent Sanitation Worker notice DCAS has published is Exam No. 2060, amended 19 July 2023. Its filing period ran 8–30 June 2022 and testing was expected to begin 7 September 2022. DSNY's own hiring-process page still points at that notice, so it remains the governing document even though the filing window closed years ago.

That matters for how you read this page. The eligibility rules and the test structure below come from a notice that is current-as-published, but the salary figures in it date to 2022 as amended in 2023 and are the most likely thing to have moved. We flag their age rather than presenting them as today's pay.

Because no newer filing period has opened, hiring right now runs off the existing list. If you are not already on it, the thing to watch for is the next notice — which is what the alert below tracks.

The Sanitation Worker test is multiple choice at a computer terminal with a 70% pass mark, and it is built differently from the police and correction exams. Rather than being organised only around abstract ability areas, the notice states the job task areas the test is designed to cover — so the questions are framed inside the actual work.

Ability areas are listed on top of those task areas, and there are seven rather than the nine or eleven the uniformed law-enforcement notices use. Calculators and devices with alphabetic keyboards are not permitted at the test site.

There is also a second, separate hurdle that catches people out: a qualifying physical test, run after the written exam, with an additional $20 fee payable on the day. It is waived for candidates who are unemployed or receiving public assistance at that time.

Two agencies split this process, and that is the thing worth understanding before you apply. DCAS runs the written exam, scores it, applies veteran credits and publishes the civil-service list. DSNY runs everything after that: the physical test, the document check, the medical, and the hiring itself.

Candidates are called for the physical test in score order as vacancies occur — and the notice is explicit that, on the projected number of vacancies, not everyone who passes the written test will be scheduled for it at all. DSNY's own hiring page adds that candidates are not called for the physical until DSNY is authorised to hire, and that the gap between the written exam and that call can vary greatly.

When hiring is authorised, DSNY calls candidates in list-number order off the certified list for orientation and processing, then verifies documents — date of birth, residency, military service if claimed, and the CDL with the right endorsement and restrictions. Under New York Civil Service Law § 61 the appointing authority selects from among the three highest-ranked candidates who will accept, and under § 56 the list itself runs for between one and four years.

Ten points are added to the final exam score of candidates who qualify for New York City Residency Credit. Unlike the police notice, DSNY investigates this claim documentarily — rent receipts with a cancelled cheque, mortgage notices, utility or telephone bills, credit-card statements or paystubs covering the whole claimed period. Failing to produce the proof forfeits the credit and your final score is adjusted downward.

These figures come from Notice of Examination No. 2060 as amended 19 July 2023, and they are the oldest published pay data on this site — treat them as a floor and a shape rather than as current pay. The notice states a minimum salary of $40,622 per year, rising to $44,064 after six months of employment and reaching a base of $83,465 at the completion of five and a half years. Longevity pay of $2,000, $2,495, $3,395 and $5,000 is added after 5, 10, 15 and 20 years of service. The notice says all rates are subject to change.