Gao-Pu Kao Salary and Rank: What Passing Actually Sets

Passing gao-pu-kao fixes your starting rank and base pay scale, not a specific job or location. Senior Level 3 (高考三級) passers are appointed starting at Rank 6, Junior Grade (薦任六職等), around NT$55,000 a month, while Junior exam (普考) passers start at Rank 3, Junior Clerk grade (委任三職等), around NT$43,000 a month, following the 2025 civil-service pay adjustment.

What does passing gao-pu-kao actually determine about pay?

It determines your starting rank in Taiwan’s civil-service pay structure, which in turn sets your base pay scale. It does not determine a specific salary figure locked in forever, since civil-service pay is periodically adjusted government-wide, and it does not determine which specific agency or role you end up in, which is decided separately through the post-exam placement process.

What is the starting rank and pay for Senior Level 3 passers?

Senior Level 3 passers are appointed starting at Rank 6, Junior Grade (薦任六職等), with pay around NT$55,000 a month following the 2025 civil-service pay adjustment. This is the higher of the two gao-pu-kao starting points, consistent with Senior Level 3’s higher education requirement of a bachelor’s degree.

What is the starting rank and pay for Junior exam passers?

Junior exam passers are appointed starting at Rank 3, Junior Clerk grade (委任三職等), with pay around NT$43,000 a month following the same 2025 adjustment. This reflects the Junior exam’s lower education bar of a senior secondary diploma, and the correspondingly lower entry rank compared to Senior Level 3.

Does the category you pass in affect your pay at the same rank?

Not the base pay itself, but it can affect total compensation. Technical categories, such as engineering, machinery, information management, and surveying, typically draw a higher professional allowance on top of the same base pay as other appointees at the same rank, since base pay does not vary by category within a given rank. A candidate weighing General Administration against a technical category should factor this allowance into a realistic comparison rather than comparing base pay figures alone.

Does starting rank mean that is where your career stays?

No. Starting rank is exactly that, a starting point set by the exam tier you passed, not a ceiling on subsequent promotion. Civil servants advance through the rank structure over the course of a career based on the agency’s own promotion and evaluation processes, which operate independently of gao-pu-kao itself once you have been appointed.

Understanding rank and pay is a natural follow-up once you know which category you are aiming for; see choosing a gao-pu-kao category for how vacancy counts and subject overlap factor into that decision, since category affects the allowance discussed above even when base pay does not change. What happens between passing and actually starting work, including the placement process, is covered in checking gao-pu-kao results and what happens after. For the two tiers’ basic differences in eligibility and appointment rank, see what gao-pu-kao actually is. Current pay figures and sources are documented on the exam page.

Frequently asked questions

What rank does a Senior Level 3 passer start at? Rank 6, Junior Grade (薦任六職等), with pay around NT$55,000 a month following the 2025 civil-service pay adjustment.

What rank does a Junior exam passer start at? Rank 3, Junior Clerk grade (委任三職等), with pay around NT$43,000 a month following the same adjustment.

Does passing determine which agency I work for? No. Rank and base pay are set by passing; the specific agency and posting are decided through a separate placement process after results are announced.

Do technical categories pay more than administrative categories at the same rank? Base pay is the same within a given rank regardless of category, but technical categories such as engineering typically draw a higher professional allowance on top of that base pay.

Does my starting rank limit how far I can be promoted later? No. Starting rank is your entry point; subsequent promotion follows the agency’s own internal processes over the course of your career, independent of the exam itself.