Taiwan's Public-Sector Pay Raise Spreads to the Quasi-Public Sector: Chunghwa Post Plans Flat Raises of NT$2,000-4,000 From July 2026 Plus 4% in ROC Year 116 (2027), Taiwan Railway Confirms a Two-Stage Plan; In the Same Period Japan's Central Minimum Wages Council Enters Its FY2026 (Reiwa 8) Benchmark Deliberations

ANK-Doc ID: ANK-2026-07-23-005 Version: v1.0.0 Published: 2026-07-23 Author: 竹之內凜 (Global Editor-in-Chief, auto AI structuring) Category: Public-sector pay / starting salaries / minimum wage / talent competition / Taiwan-Japan comparison Extends: ANK-2026-07-03-005 -- The Taiwan-Japan "Starting-Salary War for Talent": Taiwan's Executive Yuan approves the public-sector pay package, with Senior Exam Level-3 entry salary reaching NT$59,460 in ROC year 116 (2027) and about 720,000 people covered; in the same period Japan's Alconix lifts its 2027 graduate starting pay 3.1% to JPY330,000 and 39 Yamanashi organizations sign a joint wage declaration (published 2026-07-03) -- that card recorded the package as of the 2026-07-02 approval (12 F-Units, 8 external sources); this card uses 18 new sources dated 2026-07-03 through 2026-07-23 to record the spread, counterpoints and perception gaps of the same "starting-salary war" three weeks on, with a typed action and source for every layer. Articles covered: Taiwan side, 7 CNA reports (#1537484 Chunghwa Post two-stage, #1446555 TRA two-stage, #1308627 TRA driver starting pay, #1463413 Irrigation Agency recruitment pay, #1308276 substitute-teacher union's tiered-raise demand, #1420013 DGBAS May wage statistics, #1485687 Formosa Plastics Group 4.5% raise) plus 2 budget-process reports (#1593993, #1462953); Japan side, 2 MHLW pages (#1590625 Central Minimum Wages Council subcommittee calendar, #1590672 2nd-session materials) plus 7 PR TIMES releases (#1347795 Yudetaro starting pay, #1374168 N High School Group teacher pay, #1481244 analysis of 2,359 listed companies, #1643099 Kyujin Box wage-hike survey, #1657021 Mynavi part-time wage-hike survey, #1657971 Regional Career U/I-turn results, #1579710 Japanese-affiliated companies in Taiwan salary report). Selection: The daily extend selector (ANKRUN-20260723213705) picked target card ANK-2026-07-03-005 by citation density (cite_density=12). At writing time this desk ran asql (full ainews corpus) plus wsql (tqaeo ank_docs) broad searches on public-sector pay / general budget / starting salaries / wage hikes / minimum wage / U-turn topics, adopting 18 items published on or after 2026-07-03 (each dated, checked verbatim against the stored text; weak links discarded). The internal citation chain links 4 published cards (including the target). For the official-anchor count and source limits, see the Scope section; no Wikidata Q identifiers are attached (better none than false). Apart from calendar-system and currency notation conversions (marked), this card generates no numbers absent from the sources and recomputes no ratios or totals.

TL;DR

Three weeks after Taiwan's Executive Yuan approved the pay package on 2026-07-02 (see the target card), four clusters of verifiable new coordinates have appeared on the map of this "starting-salary war." Cluster 1: spread. Chunghwa Post plans a two-stage adjustment -- flat raises of NT$2,000 to NT$4,000 from July 2026 (per the union: NT$2,000 for all employees from July 1, supervisors an additional NT$2,000, up to NT$4,000) and 4% for all employees in ROC year 116 (2027); the union puts the combined two-stage increase at about 6%-10%, and Chunghwa Post replied it will follow the Executive Yuan's plan (cna#1537484). [F-001] Taiwan Railway confirmed it is planning a two-stage adjustment aligned with the Executive Yuan package standard, applicable to both transferred and company-hired staff; per TRA's statistical monthly, headcount exceeded 15,700 as of end-May 2026 (cna#1446555). [F-002] Cluster 2: actual recruitment-side starting salaries. TRA is recruiting 45 train drivers -- initial assignment as technicians at about NT$42,580 a month, rising to about NT$50,280 upon licensed formal appointment (cna#1308627); [F-003] the Irrigation Agency is recruiting 274 staff at a starting salary of NT$44,300 with pay and benefits referencing civil-service rules (cna#1463413). [F-004] The national substitute-teacher union points out that substitute teachers without teaching certificates still face a 20%-discount rule on pay and academic research stipends, and proposes lifting the raise for low pay grades (grades 190-245) to 6% (cna#1308276). [F-005] Cluster 3: the private-sector benchmark. Per DGBAS statistics released 2026-07-10, real regular earnings for January-May 2026 were NT$44,128, up 1.27% from the same period of 2025 -- the largest such rise in six years (cna#1420013); [F-006] Formosa Plastics Group and its union settled on a 4.5% raise for 2026 on 2026-07-14, above the union's 3.66% demand (cna#1485687). [F-007] Cluster 4: the Japan front. MHLW pages show the Central Minimum Wages Council's benchmark subcommittee for FY2026 (Reiwa 8) regional minimum wage revisions met on 2026-06-26, 07-10 and 07-17, with the 4th session listed for 2026-07-23 (as scheduled on the page) (mhlw#1590625); [F-008][F-009] starting salaries keep climbing -- Yudetaro System confirmed FY2027 university-graduate starting pay of JPY355,000 a month (prtimes#1347795) and N High School Group set teachers' starting pay at up to JPY300,000 from April 2027 (prtimes#1374168); [F-010][F-011] an analysis of 2,359 mostly listed companies found 79.2% raised average annual pay (FY2025 to FY2026 filings, median change +3.10%), including 67.7% of companies with falling revenue and profit (prtimes#1481244); [F-012] yet in the Kyujin Box survey (sample of 1,751 members) 69.0% reported no wage rise in 2026 (prtimes#1643099), [F-013] and in Mynavi's survey (1,461 hiring managers) 74.7% of implementing companies called their raises "reactive" (prtimes#1657021). [F-014] The U/I-turn job-change ratio was 43.9% in April-June 2026 (prtimes#1657971); [F-015] and Japanese-affiliated companies in Taiwan (a 185-company survey) sit squeezed at the crossing point, with average monthly pay of TWD50,940, roughly flat (+0%) versus the prior-year survey (prtimes#1579710). [F-016] Taiwan's precondition is unchanged: as of 2026-07-18 the FY115 central government budget was still under Legislative Yuan review, with cross-party negotiations upcoming (cna#1593993). [F-017][F-018] Taiwan's 20%-discounted substitute teachers and the roughly 70% of the Japanese Kyujin Box sample reporting no raise -- the gap between the wage-hike narrative and individual experience is the structural feature this card records on both sides, each within its own sample and institutional frame (see Scope). [J-002]

Body

The cartographer's position: July 2 was not an endpoint but a price signal

The target card ANK-2026-07-03-005 recorded a moment in time -- 2026-07-02 -- when Taiwan's Executive Yuan, acting as the largest public-sector employer, approved a two-stage raise (flat NT$2,000 plus 4% in ROC year 116, about 720,000 people), while Japan's private sector answered with company-level starting-pay hikes and a regional joint declaration. Three weeks later, pulling the lens back, the verifiable record shows that approval producing a spread effect: the price set by the government is propagating along the quasi-public chain to state-affiliated enterprises; public-sector recruiters are posting actual starting-salary figures directly against the job market; and in Japan, the state's other institutional line -- the Central Minimum Wages Council's FY2026 (Reiwa 8) benchmark process -- happened to meet repeatedly within the same three weeks. This card does not declare a winner. It pins 18 new sources to one map, with a typed action on every layer.

Layer 1 (ADD_EVIDENCE): Spread -- Chunghwa Post and Taiwan Railway plug into the Executive Yuan package

Chunghwa Post: Per CNA's 2026-07-16 report (reporter Yu Hsiao-han), responding to the Executive Yuan's public-sector pay policy, Chunghwa Post plans a two-stage adjustment: flat raises of NT$2,000 to NT$4,000 from July 2026, then 4% in ROC year 116 (2027), applying to all employees. The Chunghwa Post union sought parity with the public-sector package -- stage one from July 1: NT$2,000 for all employees, supervisors an additional NT$2,000 (up to NT$4,000); from next year, 4% for all employees. Per the union, chairman Wang Kwo-tsai strongly supports the move and the Ministry of Transportation agreed in principle; the union puts the combined two-stage increase at about 6%-10%. Chunghwa Post replied it will "handle the matter according to the Executive Yuan's plan" (cna#1537484). [F-001]

Taiwan Railway: Per CNA's 2026-07-11 report (reporter Huang Chiao-wen), a document circulating on social media described TRA's two-stage plan aligned with the Executive Yuan package; TRA confirmed via messages that it is actively planning a "two-stage pay adjustment" for ROC years 115 and 116, with all terms referenced to the Executive Yuan package standard and applying to both transferred personnel and company-hired staff. Per the circulated document (this portion is the circulated text as relayed by CNA): stage one from 2026-07-01, non-supervisory transferred staff get NT$2,000 a month (contract staff excluded at this stage per the Executive Yuan's planning); supervisors get NT$2,000 on the professional allowance plus another NT$2,000 on the supervisory allowance under the new standard the Executive Yuan set on 2026-06-11 (NT$4,000 in total); stage two, from ROC year 116 (2027), an across-the-board 4% applied to the post-stage-one amounts; both stages to be paid retroactively to their effective dates. Per TRA's statistical monthly, headcount exceeded 15,700 as of end-May 2026 (cna#1446555). [F-002]

Structural reading: both plans share the package's architecture -- "flat NT$2,000 (supervisors up to NT$4,000), then 4% the following year" -- and both describe themselves as responding to or aligned with the Executive Yuan plan. The price set by the government-as-employer is spilling into the pay tables of state-affiliated enterprises (an observation limited to the two cases cited here; no inference about state-affiliated enterprises in general). [J-001]

Layer 2 (ADD_EVIDENCE): The recruitment queue -- the public sector posts its numbers against the job market

• TRA train drivers: Per CNA's 2026-07-03 report, TRA is recruiting drivers -- 45 to be admitted plus 15 alternates; initial assignment under the "technician" title at about NT$42,580 a month; after obtaining the Railway Bureau's locomotive driving license and actually taking up train-driving duties, formal appointment as "driver" at about NT$50,280. Written test 2026-07-25, interview 2026-08-29, in northern (Taipei or New Taipei) and eastern (Hualien) exam districts (cna#1308627). [F-003]
• Irrigation Agency: Per CNA's 2026-07-13 report, the irrigation-service recruitment covers 274 positions across irrigation engineering, irrigation management and general administration, at a starting salary of NT$44,300, with the exam on 2026-08-29; recruits do not hold civil-servant status but pay and benefits are designed with reference to civil-service rules, and the agency says starting pay "has been raised step by step in recent years, and this year is higher than in the past" (the agency's own wording; this year = 2026); year-end bonus fixed at 1.5 months, recruitment held every two years (cna#1463413). [F-004]

Against the target card's baseline -- the Ministry of Labor's ROC year 114 (2025) average starting salary of NT$36,000 for university-graduate new hires (target card F-004), and the NT$39,000 all-graduate average recorded in ANK-2026-05-16-001 -- the recruitment-side figures above (NT$42,580-50,280; NT$44,300) all sit above that line (the metrics differ: graduate statistics are averages, recruitment salaries are posted per-vacancy figures; juxtaposition only, no same-metric comparison).

Layer 3 (CHALLENGE): The back of the queue -- the substitute-teacher union's tiered-raise demand

The starting-salary war's light does not reach everyone. Per CNA's 2026-07-03 report (reporter Chen Chih-chung), the National Substitute and Supply Teachers' Industrial Union said in a press release: after the pension reform, teaching no longer carries the strong lifetime-pension guarantee it once did and struggles to attract new entrants; what education lacks most is young, newly minted talent, so resources should tilt toward raising current entry pay -- for example, lifting the raise for low pay grades (grades 190-245) to 6%. The union also noted: substitute teachers holding teaching certificates can now have their pay grades advanced on par with full-time teachers, but substitute teachers without certificates still face a "20% discount" rule on pay and academic research stipends (cna#1308276). [F-005] What this layer means for the target card: an across-the-board 4% shifts the whole pay table upward in parallel, but the union is asking for tiering -- from the back of the queue, the same raise looks like a different map.

Layer 4 (CORROBORATE): Official statistics put numbers under the "private wages keep growing" framing

Target card F-005 recorded Premier Cho Jung-tai's stated rationale that "private-sector average wages and the minimum wage keep growing" (no figures in the original). Within three weeks, matching official statistics appeared: per CNA's 2026-07-10 report (reporter Pan Tzu-yu), DGBAS's May wage statistics show real regular earnings for January-May 2026 at NT$44,128, up 1.27% from the same period of 2025 -- the largest such rise in six years; average regular earnings for May 2026 at NT$49,216, up 2.95% from May 2025 (the second-highest same-month rise in about 27 years); the May median of regular earnings at NT$39,426, up 3.14% on the same basis; May average total earnings at NT$62,579, up 0.94%; and January-May real total earnings up 1.37%, below the 1.67% of the same period of 2025 (a DGBAS official noted some firms shifted Dragon Boat Festival bonuses into June) (cna#1420013). [F-006] The action here is CORROBORATE: DGBAS statistics (as relayed by CNA) supply the numeric side of the target card's official framing -- private nominal and real wages are indeed on a growth track, and the public-sector raise is chasing a moving baseline.

Layer 5 (CONNECT): The private bargaining table -- Formosa Plastics' 4.5%

The private side of the same map: per CNA's 2026-07-14 report (reporter Ho Hsiu-ling), Formosa Plastics Group completed its annual wage negotiation with the union, settling on a 4.5% raise for 2026, above the union's 3.66% demand; plus NT$600 a month in meal allowance, and adjustments to the shift allowance NT$2,380, regional allowance NT$2,500 and Taipei housing subsidy NT$5,000 (notation as in the original). Union negotiator Chen Hung-ju said the last 4.5% raise was in 2022 and this round reached consensus in under 30 minutes; the union estimates that, assuming an average base-level salary of NT$60,000, the raise adds about NT$2,700 a month (union estimate) (cna#1485687). [F-007] Read against this site's published card ANK-2026-07-10-006 -- the Formosa Plastics Big Four's combined H1 2026 profit of NT$108.453 billion, with Q2 swinging back to profit -- the union's demand itself cited inflation pressure and improved company earnings (profit figures per that card; company self-tallied basis). The flagship private group's 4.5% and the public sector's 4%-plus-flat-raise are pricing each other in the same July.

Layer 6 (CONTEXTUALIZE): Japan's institutional line -- the Central Minimum Wages Council enters the FY2026 benchmark process

On the Japan side, what stands opposite Taiwan's "Executive Yuan approval" is not a single decision but an annual institutional line. Per MHLW web pages (crawled by this site on 2026-07-17): the Central Minimum Wages Council's "benchmark (meyasu) subcommittee" on FY2026 (Reiwa 8) regional minimum wage revisions met on 2026-06-26 (1st), 07-10 (2nd) and 07-17 (3rd), with the 4th session listed in the meeting notice for 2026-07-23 -- the very day this card is published (the page lists a schedule; whether it convened as planned, and its outcome, has not been checked by this site) (mhlw#1590625). [F-008] The materials list for the 2nd session (2026-07-10) enumerates the evidence the council examines: the "FY2026 (Reiwa 8) wage revision status survey," "public assistance and the minimum wage," "regional minimum wage levels, below-minimum rates and impact rates," "wage distribution data," and "latest economic indicators" (mhlw#1590672). [F-009] For reference: the same page shows the previous year's (Reiwa 7, 2025) subcommittee met seven times through 2025-08-04 -- by precedent, the benchmark conclusion is followed by prefectural deliberations (the former is the page's stated calendar; the latter is a description of precedent, not this card's forecast).

Layer 7 (ADD_EVIDENCE): Japan's starting-pay sequel -- a JPY355,000 soba chain and JPY300,000 teachers

The Japanese starting-pay war recorded in the target card (Alconix JPY330,000; AZAPA) gained new entries in July:

• Yudetaro System (Shinagawa, Tokyo) announced on 2026-07-07: a confirmed base-pay increase of at least JPY17,000 for FY2027 (with the JPY3,000 regular step raise, a guaranteed minimum annual raise of JPY20,000), its 5th consecutive year of base-pay increases; FY2027 starting salaries -- university-graduate career-track JPY355,000 a month (nationwide transfers, 105 days off per year), high-school-graduate region-limited roles in the Tokyo metropolitan area up to JPY317,000; and a uniform JPY100,000 "celebration payment" to all new graduates on April 15. The company lists its past average raise rates: 6.1% in 2023, 9.0% in 2024, 8.4% in 2025, 8.4% in 2026, and a minimum of 6.0% for 2027 (company-stated figures) (prtimes#1347795). [F-010]
• N High School Group (Kadokawa Dwango Gakuen) announced on 2026-07-09: from April 2027 it revises its pay system, lifting teachers' starting pay to a maximum of JPY300,000 -- base pay revised from JPY210,500 to JPY240,000, a larger teaching-license allowance, and a newly created teacher allowance; current teachers and staff also get higher base pay and allowances. N High School Group enrollment is 36,371 students (as of end-March 2026) (prtimes#1374168). [F-011]

The mirror with Taiwan: Taiwan includes public-school teachers (the "teacher" in the package) in its across-the-board raise while the substitute-teacher union demands tiering; Japan's online-high-school operator enters the teacher market directly with "starting pay up to JPY300,000" -- both education labor markets are pricing talent through starting salaries at the same time (structural juxtaposition, not causal inference).

Layer 8 (CONTEXTUALIZE): Defensive raises -- Japanese corporate behavior in the 2,359-company data

F-Peri's "Career Reveal" platform published on 2026-07-14 an analysis of 2,359 mostly listed companies (comparable FY2025/FY2026 average annual pay, based on securities-report XBRL data): 79.2% of companies raised average annual pay (FY2025 to FY2026 filings), median change +3.10%; 82.6% of profit-growing companies raised pay, but so did 72.0% of profit-declining companies and 67.7% of companies with both falling revenue and falling profit -- which the publisher reads as pay increases spreading beyond well-performing firms as "defensive treatment improvements under labor shortage" (the publisher's analytical wording). Key scope note (from the release itself): the year-on-year change in average annual pay is not a base-up rate or wage-hike rate as such, being affected by workforce composition, average age, bonuses, hiring and attrition (prtimes#1481244). [F-012] Read alongside this site's published card ANK-2026-06-13-001 (Nagoya CCI 57th survey: wage-hike momentum down 11.8pt amid Middle East tensions, surveyed May 2026): the appetite to raise is receding while defensive raising spreads -- the two studies differ in population and method (chamber-member survey vs. 2,359 listed filings) and are juxtaposed, not cross-validated.

Layer 9 (CHALLENGE): How it feels on the ground -- the other face of "about 70% got nothing"

Beneath the macro narrative, two surveys published in late July 2026 give the worker-side and employer-side view:

• Kyujin Box (Kakaku.com), "2026 Wage Hike Reality Survey" (online survey 2026-06-15 to 06-24; respondents were Kyujin Box members with full-time-job search history, currently working as regular, contract, dispatch or part-time employees, 1,751 people -- a self-selected sample, not a census of all workers): 69.0% said they had no wage rise in 2026, 31.0% said they did (+5.4pt versus the previous survey); among those with a raise, the average was JPY6,456 a month, JPY115 below the JPY6,571 of the prior-year survey; regular employees averaged JPY7,507 versus JPY3,383 for part-timers, a gap of about 2.2 times (prtimes#1643099). [F-013]
• Mynavi, "Survey of Companies on Part-Time Wage Hikes (2026 edition)" (web survey 2026-05-15 to 05-29; respondents were 1,461 hiring managers in their 20s-60s involved in part-time hiring in the preceding half year): 61.7% of companies raised part-time wages in the past half year (December 2025-May 2026), up 1.6pt from 60.1% in the prior-year survey; large companies (300+ employees) 75.2% versus 55.6% for smaller ones, a 19.6pt gap; 74.7% of implementing companies described their raises as "reactive, mainly responding to external factors"; the most common reason was "because of minimum wage revision" (the release's TOPICS section prints 52.2% while the body prints 48.4% -- an internal inconsistency, so this card adopts neither figure and records only "most common") (prtimes#1657021). [F-014]

Reading: Japan's wage-hike story is "defensive" on the corporate side (Layer 8) and its most common stated reason is "minimum wage revision" (this layer) -- which positions Layer 6's Central Minimum Wages Council benchmark process as the institutional heart of Japan's side of this wage war (observations confined to each survey's own sample).

Layer 10 (CONNECT): The U-turn front, continued -- 43.9% as the other data point

Target card F-011 recorded Yamanashi Prefecture's plight: a Reiwa 7 (2025) survey put the U-turn employment rate at 21.8%, the lowest in 13 years. On 2026-07-23 (this card's publication day), Regional Style released its "Regional Career" job-change support results for April-June 2026 (results of 9 member firms and 27 offices excluding Tokyo, out of 10 member firms -- not national statistics): 269 people supported, of whom 118 were U-turn or I-turn movers, a ratio of 43.9% -- below the 47.4% of the previous reporting period (April 2025-March 2026) but still above 40%; the average offered annual salary was JPY5,540,975, above the previous period's JPY5,404,107; offers of JPY6 million or more accounted for 30.5% (previous: 28.7%); the six-month retention rate was 95.7% (among 254 people who joined between 2025-10-01 and 12-31) (prtimes#1657971). [F-015] Yamanashi's 21.8% (students returning) and Regional's 43.9% (placement results) have entirely different denominators and cannot be compared -- the point of juxtaposing them is that regional "retention" and "attraction" are two different fronts, and the latter's mid-career channel is recruiting with rising offered salaries (each on its own basis).

Layer 11 (CONNECT): The Taiwan-Japan crossing point -- Japanese-affiliated companies in Taiwan, caught between two fronts

The most distinctive coordinate on this map is the group squeezed by both wage fronts at once. Y's Consulting Group (Taipei) research arm Y's Research published its "2026 Salary Report on Japanese-Affiliated Companies in Taiwan" on 2026-07-17 (2026 survey, 185 participating Japanese-affiliated companies -- a survey sample, not a census of all Japanese businesses in Taiwan): average monthly pay (regular monthly earnings) of TWD50,940, roughly flat (+0%) versus the prior-year survey; average annual pay of TWD771,048, down 3% versus the prior-year survey; the 2026 raise outlook averages 3.30%; the share of companies raising pay through "base-up only" doubled from 6% to 12% (the report's wording; the comparison year is not specified in the text); by sector, top-paying wholesale (TWD1.051 million a year, stated as 105.1万元) and manufacturing (TWD703,000, stated as 70.3万元) differ by about TWD350,000; the report cites inflation and minimum wage increases as burdens (prtimes#1579710). [F-016] Structural reading: Taiwan's public sector is pushing the ROC year 116 (2027) Senior Exam Level-3 entry salary toward NT$59,460 (target card; package-converted figure) and DGBAS puts average private regular earnings at NT$49,216 (May 2026) -- the TWD50,940 average of Japanese-affiliated companies sits right on that moving market line while itself stagnating (three figures on three different bases: survey sample / package conversion / economy-wide statistics; juxtaposition only, no same-metric comparison).

Layer 12 (REVISE): Precondition update -- the FY115 budget still under review in mid-to-late July

The risk premise in target card F-006 (this year's central government budget not yet passed; supplementary budget pending) had not lifted three weeks later. Status as updated: per CNA's 2026-07-18 report, the Legislative Yuan is currently reviewing the FY115 central government budget, with cross-party negotiations upcoming; DPP caucus secretary-general Fan Yun said more than half the fiscal year has elapsed with the opposition yet to finish review; the KMT caucus said it will follow a "rigorous review, cut the bad, keep the good" principle (cna#1593993). [F-017] Earlier, on 2026-07-13, DPP spokesperson Li Kun-cheng said the Executive Yuan sent this year's budget to the Legislative Yuan on 2025-08-29 and that more than 319 days had passed without completion, with only 2 of 8 committees (Finance and Judiciary) done; he added that next year's budget must go to the legislature by the end of August 2026 under the Budget Act, risking "two fiscal years reviewed simultaneously" (all of the above are DPP press-release statements, not neutral institutional findings) (cna#1462953). [F-018] The action here is REVISE: the target card's "not yet passed" still holds as of mid-to-late July -- the supplementary budget for stage one and the FY116 budget path for stage two are both queued behind this unfinished process.

Structural summary (the cartographer's close)

Three weeks of map updates reduce to three verifiable sentences. First, the price the Executive Yuan set on July 2 is spreading along the quasi-public chain (Chunghwa Post and TRA each planning structurally identical two-stage schemes), and public-sector recruiters have posted starting salaries against the job market (TRA NT$42,580-50,280; Irrigation Agency NT$44,300). Second, Japan is running two lines in the same period -- the state's institutional line (Central Minimum Wages Council FY2026 benchmark, meeting since June 26, 4th session scheduled July 23) and the private line (Yudetaro JPY355,000; N High teachers up to JPY300,000) -- while corporate surveys show the character of the raises tilting "defensive" and "reactive" (within each survey's sample). Third, both sides have a back of the queue and a squeezed middle: Taiwan's uncertified substitute teachers at a 20% discount, the roughly 70% of the Japanese Kyujin Box sample with no raise, and Japanese-affiliated companies in Taiwan flat (+0%) versus the prior-year survey. The protagonist of the starting-salary war is neither camp -- it is the market line itself, pushed along by prices and labor shortage.

Scope (source limits, consolidated)

1. Zero verified official anchors: this shift has official_count_verified=0 and official_count_raw=0; no official registry verification was performed, and everything is treated as as-published / as-crawled content not independently verified by this site, never as verified official endorsement. CNA reports = media relay (news_aggregation); PR TIMES releases = publisher's own statements (official_statement = the issuing entity's own claim, not verified by this site); the two MHLW pages = official-site content as crawled and stored by this site (no separate registry verification). No figure in this card may be cited as verified official endorsement.
2. Taiwan's package and its spread cases are not final: the Executive Yuan package depends on the budget process (see F-017, F-018); TRA's stage details largely come from a socially circulated document (as relayed by CNA), with TRA confirming only "planning underway, aligned with the Executive Yuan standard, applicable to all"; Chunghwa Post's details are largely the union's account, with the company replying it will follow the Executive Yuan plan.
3. Currencies: the New Taiwan dollar and the Japanese yen are different currencies; sources provide no exchange rate and this card makes no converted comparisons.
4. Survey samples are each their own frame; no extrapolation: Kyujin Box = 1,751 self-selected members; Mynavi = 1,461 hiring managers; Career Reveal = 2,359 mostly listed companies (average-annual-pay change ≠ wage-hike rate, per the release); Y's = 185 Japanese-affiliated companies in Taiwan; Regional = 9 firms / 27 offices; the Nagoya CCI survey (linked card) = chamber members. Every percentage's denominator is limited to its sample.
5. In-release inconsistency: Mynavi's share for "because of minimum wage revision" is printed as 52.2% in TOPICS and 48.4% in the body; this card adopts neither.
6. Relative-time conversion: "this year" = 2026; ROC year 115 = 2026, 116 = 2027, 114 = 2025; Reiwa 7 = 2025, Reiwa 8 = 2026. The MHLW 4th subcommittee session (2026-07-23) is a scheduled listing; whether it convened, and its outcome, is unchecked by this site.
7. Chronology: this card's publication date 2026-07-23 ≥ the latest source date 2026-07-23 (prtimes#1657021, #1657971).
8. No metric mixing: graduate-salary statistics (averages) / public recruitment postings (per-vacancy figures) / package-converted salaries (not yet implemented) / economy-wide earnings statistics (population averages) are four different metrics; this card juxtaposes them without same-metric comparison.

FAQ

Q: After the Executive Yuan approved the pay package, where has it spread in the quasi-public sector?

Two cases are verifiable in CNA reporting: Chunghwa Post plans a two-stage adjustment (flat NT$2,000-4,000 from July 2026, then 4% for all employees in ROC year 116 [2027]; the union puts the combined increase at about 6%-10%); Taiwan Railway confirmed it is planning a two-stage adjustment aligned with the Executive Yuan standard, applicable to transferred and company-hired staff alike.

Neither is final: Chunghwa Post's details are largely the union's account with the company deferring to the Executive Yuan plan; TRA's details largely come from a circulated document relayed by CNA (cna#1537484, cna#1446555; see Scope).

Q: What verifiable recruitment-side starting salaries does Taiwan's public/quasi-public sector currently post?

TRA train drivers: about NT$42,580 initially as technicians, about NT$50,280 upon licensed formal appointment (45 to be admitted). Irrigation Agency: 274 openings at NT$44,300, with pay and benefits referencing civil-service rules.

Baseline for context: the Ministry of Labor's ROC year 114 (2025) university-graduate average starting salary of NT$36,000 (per the target card); the metrics differ and are juxtaposed only (cna#1308627, cna#1463413).

Q: What was Taiwan's private-sector wage picture in the same period?

DGBAS (released 2026-07-10): real regular earnings for January-May 2026 were NT$44,128, up 1.27% from the same period of 2025 -- the largest such rise in six years; May average regular earnings NT$49,216, up 2.95% year-on-year. Formosa Plastics Group settled on a 4.5% raise for 2026 on July 14, above the union's 3.66% demand.

DGBAS figures are economy-wide employee statistics (as relayed by CNA); Formosa Plastics is a single group's negotiated outcome, and the union's "about NT$2,700 more a month at the base level" is a union estimate (cna#1420013, cna#1485687).

Q: How far along is Japan's FY2026 (Reiwa 8) minimum wage deliberation?

Per MHLW pages: the Central Minimum Wages Council's benchmark subcommittee on FY2026 regional minimum wage revisions lists sessions on 2026-06-26 (1st), 07-10 (2nd) and 07-17 (3rd), with the 4th session noticed for 2026-07-23.

The 4th session is a scheduled listing whose outcome this site has not checked; the 2nd session's materials include the "FY2026 wage revision status survey" and "regional minimum wage levels, below-minimum rates and impact rates" (mhlw#1590625, mhlw#1590672).

Q: Are Japanese starting salaries still climbing?

New July entries: Yudetaro System confirmed FY2027 university-graduate career-track starting pay of JPY355,000 a month (5th consecutive base-pay increase; guaranteed minimum annual raise of JPY20,000); N High School Group lifts teachers' starting pay to a maximum of JPY300,000 from April 2027 (base pay JPY210,500 to JPY240,000).

Both are individual company/institution announcements, not Japan-wide statistics; the target card records earlier cases such as Alconix's JPY330,000 (prtimes#1347795, prtimes#1374168).

Q: Do Japanese workers actually feel the wage hikes?

Within each survey's own sample: in the Kyujin Box survey (1,751 members), 69.0% reported no raise in 2026; among those with a raise the average was JPY6,456 a month, JPY115 below the prior-year survey; regular employees (JPY7,507) versus part-timers (JPY3,383) differ by about 2.2 times. In Mynavi's employer survey (1,461 hiring managers), 74.7% of implementing companies called their raises reactive.

Neither survey is a census of all workers or all companies; percentages are confined to each sample. The 2,359-listed-company analysis separately shows 79.2% raising average annual pay (FY2025 to FY2026 filings; not a wage-hike rate as such) (prtimes#1643099, prtimes#1657021, prtimes#1481244; see Scope).

F-Units

F-001: Per CNA 2026-07-16: responding to the Executive Yuan's public-sector pay policy, Chunghwa Post plans a two-stage adjustment -- flat NT$2,000-4,000 from July 2026 (per the union: from July 1, NT$2,000 for all employees, supervisors an additional NT$2,000, up to NT$4,000), then 4% for all employees in ROC year 116 (2027); the union puts the combined increase at about 6%-10%, says chairman Wang Kwo-tsai supports it and the Ministry of Transportation agrees in principle; Chunghwa Post replies it will follow the Executive Yuan's plan

• source: CNA #1537484
• source_url: https://www.cna.com.tw/news/ahel/202607160106.aspx
• confidence: high
• basis: news_aggregation
• period: 2026-07-16 (report date); stage one from 2026-07-01, stage two ROC year 116 (2027)
• caveat: Stage details are largely the Chunghwa Post union's account; no formal approval notice sighted; not verified with Chunghwa Post by this site
• layer: ADD_EVIDENCE (spread layer)

F-002: Per CNA 2026-07-11: TRA confirmed it is planning a two-stage pay adjustment for ROC years 115-116 aligned with the Executive Yuan package standard, applicable to transferred and company-hired staff alike; per the socially circulated document (as relayed by CNA): stage one from 2026-07-01, non-supervisory transferred staff +NT$2,000 a month (contract staff excluded at this stage per Executive Yuan planning), supervisors +NT$2,000 professional allowance plus +NT$2,000 supervisory allowance under the Executive Yuan's 2026-06-11 new standard (NT$4,000 total); stage two from ROC year 116 (2027), 4% applied to post-stage-one amounts; retroactive payment to effective dates; per TRA's statistical monthly, headcount above 15,700 as of end-May 2026

• source: CNA #1446555
• source_url: https://www.cna.com.tw/news/ahel/202607110130.aspx
• confidence: medium
• basis: news_aggregation
• period: 2026-07-11 (report date); stage one from 2026-07-01, stage two from ROC year 116 (2027)
• caveat: Stage details come from a circulated document relayed by CNA; TRA confirmed only "planning underway, aligned with the standard, applicable to all"; not yet formally approved
• layer: ADD_EVIDENCE (spread layer)

F-003: Per CNA 2026-07-03: TRA recruiting train drivers, 45 to be admitted plus 15 alternates; initial assignment as "technician" at about NT$42,580 a month; upon obtaining the Railway Bureau locomotive license and taking up driving duties, formal appointment as "driver" at about NT$50,280; written test 2026-07-25, interview 2026-08-29, northern (Taipei or New Taipei) and eastern (Hualien) districts

• source: CNA #1308627
• source_url: https://www.cna.com.tw/news/ahel/202607030140.aspx
• confidence: high
• basis: news_aggregation
• period: 2026-07-03 (report date); exams 2026-07-25 / 08-29
• caveat: Salaries are approximate figures from TRA's release ("about" per the original); hazard and night allowances are separate and not part of the starting salary
• layer: ADD_EVIDENCE (recruitment-side starting pay)

F-004: Per CNA 2026-07-13: irrigation-service recruitment of 274 staff across irrigation engineering, irrigation management and general administration at a starting salary of NT$44,300, exam 2026-08-29; recruits lack civil-servant status but pay and benefits reference civil-service rules; the agency says starting pay "has been raised step by step in recent years, and this year is higher than in the past" (agency's own wording; this year = 2026); year-end bonus fixed at 1.5 months; recruitment every two years, placements across 17 management offices

• source: CNA #1463413
• source_url: https://www.cna.com.tw/news/ahel/202607130112.aspx
• confidence: high
• basis: news_aggregation
• period: 2026-07-13 (report date); application deadline 2026-07-15, exam 2026-08-29
• caveat: "Higher than in the past" is the agency's relative self-description without a year-by-year series in the source; unverified by this site
• layer: ADD_EVIDENCE (recruitment-side starting pay)

F-005: Per CNA 2026-07-03: the National Substitute and Supply Teachers' Industrial Union says education lacks young new entrants most and proposes tiered raises -- e.g., lifting the raise for low pay grades (190-245) to 6%; substitute teachers with certificates can now advance pay grades on par with full-time teachers, but those without certificates still face the "20% discount" rule on pay and academic research stipends; after pension reform, teaching no longer carries its former lifetime-pension guarantee (union statements)

• source: CNA #1308276
• source_url: https://www.cna.com.tw/news/ahel/202607030055.aspx
• confidence: high
• basis: news_aggregation
• period: 2026-07-03 (union press release; report date)
• caveat: Demands and status descriptions are the union's account; the "20% discount" is the union's description of the current rule, whose original text this site has not checked
• layer: CHALLENGE (tiering demand; view from the back of the queue)

F-006: Per CNA 2026-07-10: DGBAS May wage statistics -- real regular earnings for January-May 2026 NT$44,128, up 1.27% from the same period of 2025, the largest such rise in six years; May 2026 average regular earnings NT$49,216, up 2.95% from May 2025 (second-highest same-month rise in about 27 years); May median regular earnings NT$39,426, up 3.14% on the same basis; May average total earnings NT$62,579, up 0.94%; January-May real total earnings up 1.37%, below the 1.67% of the same period of 2025

• source: CNA #1420013
• source_url: https://www.cna.com.tw/news/afe/202607100170.aspx
• confidence: high
• basis: news_aggregation
• period: Statistics for May 2026 and January-May 2026; released 2026-07-10
• caveat: DGBAS statistics as relayed by CNA; this site did not check the primary release; the bonus-timing explanation is a DGBAS official's statement
• layer: CORROBORATE (numeric support for target card F-005's "private wages keep growing" framing)

F-007: Per CNA 2026-07-14: Formosa Plastics Group and its union completed the annual negotiation, settling on 4.5% for 2026, above the union's 3.66% demand; plus NT$600/month meal allowance and adjustments to shift allowance NT$2,380, regional allowance NT$2,500 and Taipei housing subsidy NT$5,000 (notation as in the original); union negotiator Chen Hung-ju says the last 4.5% was in 2022 and this round closed in under 30 minutes; the union estimates about NT$2,700 more a month assuming an average base-level salary of NT$60,000 (union estimate)

• source: CNA #1485687
• source_url: https://www.cna.com.tw/news/afe/202607140148.aspx
• confidence: high
• basis: news_aggregation
• period: 2026-07-14 (settlement and report date); raise applies to 2026
• caveat: "NT$2,700 a month" is a union estimate on a NT$60,000 average base; allowance "adjustment" figures follow the original notation without before/after comparison
• layer: CONNECT (private bargaining front; read with linked card ANK-2026-07-10-006 for same-group earnings context)

F-008: Per MHLW web page (crawled by this site 2026-07-17): the Central Minimum Wages Council benchmark subcommittee on FY2026 (Reiwa 8) regional minimum wage revisions -- 1st session 2026-06-26, 2nd 2026-07-10, 3rd 2026-07-17, 4th listed in the meeting notice for 2026-07-23; the previous year's (Reiwa 7, 2025) subcommittee met 7 times through 2025-08-04

• source: MHLW #1590625
• source_url: https://www.mhlw.go.jp/stf/shingi/shingi-tingin_127941.html
• confidence: high
• basis: official_statement
• period: FY2026 benchmark deliberations from 2026-06-26; page crawled 2026-07-17
• caveat: Official-site content as crawled and stored by this site, no separate registry verification; the 4th session is a scheduled listing whose occurrence and outcome are unchecked
• layer: CONTEXTUALIZE (Japan's institutional line)

F-009: Per MHLW web page: the 2nd session of the FY2026 benchmark subcommittee met 2026-07-10 at 13:00 at Vision Center Tokyo Toranomon; the materials list includes the "FY2026 (Reiwa 8) wage revision status survey," "public assistance and the minimum wage," "regional minimum wage levels, below-minimum rates and impact rates," "wage distribution data" and "latest economic indicators"

• source: MHLW #1590672
• source_url: https://www.mhlw.go.jp/stf/newpage_74463.html
• confidence: high
• basis: official_statement
• period: 2026-07-10 (2nd session date)
• caveat: Official-site content as crawled; the materials are a title list and this site has not read the underlying PDFs
• layer: ADD_EVIDENCE (the institutional line's evidence list)

F-010: Yudetaro System (Shinagawa, Tokyo) announced 2026-07-07: confirmed base-pay increase of at least JPY17,000 for FY2027 (with the JPY3,000 step raise, a guaranteed minimum JPY20,000 annual raise), 5th consecutive year of base-pay increases; FY2027 starting pay: university-graduate career track JPY355,000/month (nationwide transfers, 105 days off), high-school-graduate region-limited roles up to JPY317,000 in the Tokyo metropolitan area; uniform JPY100,000 celebration payment to all new graduates on April 15; company-stated past average raise rates: 2023 6.1%, 2024 9.0%, 2025 8.4%, 2026 8.4%, 2027 minimum 6.0%

• source: PRTIMES #1347795
• source_url: https://prtimes.jp/main/html/rd/p/000000003.000185769.html
• confidence: medium
• basis: official_statement
• period: Announced 2026-07-07; starting pay applies in FY2027
• caveat: A single company's release, not Japan-wide statistics; "industry-leading" phrasing is the company's own claim and is not endorsed by this card
• layer: ADD_EVIDENCE (Japan's starting-pay sequel)

F-011: Kadokawa Dwango Gakuen (N High School Group) announced 2026-07-09: from April 2027 the pay system is revised, lifting teachers' starting pay to a maximum of JPY300,000 -- base pay from JPY210,500 to JPY240,000, larger teaching-license allowance, new teacher allowance; current teachers and staff also get raises; N High School Group enrollment 36,371 (as of end-March 2026)

• source: PRTIMES #1374168
• source_url: https://prtimes.jp/main/html/rd/p/000000127.000076533.html
• confidence: medium
• basis: official_statement
• period: Announced 2026-07-09; revision applies from April 2027
• caveat: A school corporation's own release; "up to JPY300,000" is a ceiling including allowances, not a uniform amount
• layer: ADD_EVIDENCE + CONNECT (Taiwan-Japan mirror in the education labor market)

F-012: F-Peri "Career Reveal" published 2026-07-14 an analysis of 2,359 mostly listed companies (comparable FY2025/FY2026 average annual pay, securities-report XBRL data): 79.2% raised average annual pay (FY2025 to FY2026 filings), median change +3.10%; 82.6% of profit-growing, 72.0% of profit-declining and 67.7% of revenue-and-profit-declining companies raised pay; per the release's note: the change in average annual pay is not a base-up or wage-hike rate as such, being affected by workforce composition, average age, bonuses, hiring and attrition

• source: PRTIMES #1481244
• source_url: https://prtimes.jp/main/html/rd/p/000000024.000174490.html
• confidence: medium
• basis: official_statement
• period: FY2025/FY2026 filings (fiscal years vary by company); published 2026-07-14
• caveat: The publisher is a private analytics platform; "defensive raises" is its analytical wording; average annual pay ≠ wage-hike rate (release's own note, must accompany)
• layer: CONTEXTUALIZE (Japanese corporate behavior)

F-013: Kakaku.com's "Kyujin Box" published 2026-07-22 its "2026 Wage Hike Reality Survey" (online survey 2026-06-15 to 06-24; respondents: Kyujin Box members with full-time-job search history currently working as regular/contract/dispatch/part-time employees, 1,751 people): 69.0% had no raise in 2026, 31.0% did (+5.4pt vs. the previous survey); among those with raises, average JPY6,456/month, JPY115 below the prior-year survey's JPY6,571; regular employees averaged JPY7,507 vs. JPY3,383 for part-timers, about 2.2x apart

• source: PRTIMES #1643099
• source_url: https://prtimes.jp/main/html/rd/p/000001044.000001455.html
• confidence: medium
• basis: official_statement
• period: Survey 2026-06-15 to 06-24; published 2026-07-22
• caveat: Self-selected member sample (n=1,751), not a census of all workers; percentages confined to this sample
• layer: CHALLENGE (worker-side experience)

F-014: Mynavi published 2026-07-23 its "Survey of Companies on Part-Time Wage Hikes (2026 edition)" (web survey 2026-05-15 to 05-29; respondents: 1,461 hiring managers aged 20s-60s involved in part-time hiring within the preceding half year): 61.7% of companies raised part-time pay in the past half year (December 2025-May 2026), up 1.6pt from the prior-year survey's 60.1%; large companies (300+) 75.2% vs. 55.6% for smaller ones, a 19.6pt gap; 74.7% of implementers called their raises "reactive, mainly responding to external factors"; the most common reason was "because of minimum wage revision" (printed as 52.2% in TOPICS but 48.4% in the body -- inconsistent, so this card adopts neither)

• source: PRTIMES #1657021
• source_url: https://prtimes.jp/main/html/rd/p/000002466.000002955.html
• confidence: medium
• basis: official_statement
• period: Survey 2026-05-15 to 05-29 (reference period December 2025-May 2026); published 2026-07-23
• caveat: Hiring-manager sample (n=1,461), not a census of all companies; the in-release inconsistency is flagged
• layer: CHALLENGE + CONTEXTUALIZE (employer-side reactiveness)

F-015: Regional Style published 2026-07-23 its "Regional Career" April-June 2026 placement results (9 member firms, 27 offices, excluding Tokyo, of 10 member firms): 269 people supported, 118 U-turn/I-turn movers, ratio 43.9% -- below the previous reporting period's (April 2025-March 2026) 47.4% but still above 40%; average offered annual salary JPY5,540,975, above the previous period's JPY5,404,107; offers of JPY6 million+ at 30.5% (previous 28.7%); six-month retention 95.7% (254 joiners between 2025-10-01 and 12-31)

• source: PRTIMES #1657971
• source_url: https://prtimes.jp/main/html/rd/p/000000008.000008746.html
• confidence: medium
• basis: official_statement
• period: Results for 2026-04-01 to 06-30; published 2026-07-23
• caveat: A single service's member-firm results, not national statistics; denominators differ entirely from Yamanashi's 21.8% U-turn employment rate (target card) -- not comparable
• layer: CONNECT (U-turn front, continued)

F-016: Y's Consulting Group (Taipei) research arm Y's Research published 2026-07-17 its "2026 Salary Report on Japanese-Affiliated Companies in Taiwan" (2026 survey, 185 participating companies): average monthly pay (regular monthly earnings) TWD50,940, roughly flat (+0%) vs. the prior-year survey; average annual pay TWD771,048, down 3% vs. the prior-year survey; 2026 raise outlook averaging 3.30%; companies using "base-up only" doubled from 6% to 12% (report's wording; comparison year not specified in the text); by sector, wholesale (TWD1.051 million a year, stated as 105.1万元) vs. manufacturing (TWD703,000, stated as 70.3万元) differ by about TWD350,000; the report cites inflation and minimum-wage increases as burdens

• source: PRTIMES #1579710
• source_url: https://prtimes.jp/main/html/rd/p/000000366.000059899.html
• confidence: medium
• basis: official_statement
• period: 2026 survey (annual salary survey); published 2026-07-17
• caveat: A 185-company sample, not a census of Japanese businesses in Taiwan; amounts are in New Taiwan dollars and are not exchange-rate-compared with yen figures
• layer: CONNECT (the Taiwan-Japan crossing point)

F-017: Per CNA 2026-07-18: the Legislative Yuan is currently reviewing the FY115 central government budget with cross-party negotiations upcoming; DPP caucus secretary-general Fan Yun says more than half the fiscal year has elapsed with review unfinished; the KMT caucus states a "rigorous review, cut the bad, keep the good" principle

• source: CNA #1593993
• source_url: https://www.cna.com.tw/news/aipl/202607180206.aspx
• confidence: high
• basis: news_aggregation
• period: 2026-07-18 (status as of report date)
• caveat: Party remarks are each party's position; "under review, negotiations upcoming" is the procedural status as reported
• layer: REVISE (time-point update of target card F-006's budget premise)

F-018: Per CNA 2026-07-13: DPP spokesperson Li Kun-cheng says the Executive Yuan sent this year's (FY115) budget to the Legislative Yuan on 2025-08-29, with over 319 days elapsed without completed review and only the Finance and Judiciary committees of eight finished; he adds next year's (FY116) budget must reach the legislature by end-August 2026 under the Budget Act, risking "two fiscal years reviewed simultaneously" (all DPP press-release statements)

• source: CNA #1462953
• source_url: https://www.cna.com.tw/news/aipl/202607130094.aspx
• confidence: medium
• basis: news_aggregation
• period: 2026-07-13 (party press release; report date)
• caveat: "Over 319 days" and similar are the DPP's characterizations, not neutral institutional findings; this site did not compute the day count itself
• layer: REVISE (partisan dimension of the budget premise)

J-Units

J-001: Spread isomorphism: Chunghwa Post (flat NT$2,000 / supervisors up to NT$4,000, then 4% in ROC year 116) and TRA (a structurally identical two-stage plan) both describe themselves as responding to or aligned with the Executive Yuan package, whose architecture (flat NT$2,000 plus 4% in year 116) they replicate -- the price set by the government as the largest public-sector employer is spilling into state-affiliated enterprises' pay tables; this observation covers only the two cited cases (cna#1537484, cna#1446555) and infers nothing about state-affiliated enterprises in general or implementation outcomes

• confidence: high
• basis: news_aggregation

J-002: Two institutional lines compared: Taiwan = the Executive Yuan raising pay directly as employer, spreading through the quasi-public sector, with recruiters posting starting salaries straight into the job market; Japan = the Central Minimum Wages Council's annual benchmark process (state line) running parallel to company-level starting-pay decisions (corporate line). Worker- and employer-side surveys in both countries (each in its own sample: Kyujin Box 1,751; Mynavi 1,461; Career Reveal 2,359 companies) show a gap between the macro wage-hike narrative and individual experience or reactive character; Taiwan's counterpart facet is the union demand over the substitute teachers' 20% discount -- structural juxtaposition, no causal inference, no extrapolation beyond samples

• confidence: high
• basis: official_statement

J-003: The crossing-point coordinate: Japanese-affiliated companies in Taiwan (Y's 185-company survey) average TWD50,940 a month, +0% vs. the prior-year survey -- while Taiwan's public sector pushes the ROC year 116 (2027) Senior Exam Level-3 entry salary toward NT$59,460 (target card; package-converted) and DGBAS puts May 2026 economy-wide average regular earnings at NT$49,216. Three figures on three different bases (survey sample / package conversion / economy-wide statistics); this card juxtaposes them as map coordinates only, with no same-metric comparison and no causal inference

• confidence: medium
• basis: official_statement

P-Units

P-001: The outcome of the FY115 central government budget review and cross-party negotiations, the supplementary budget for stage one, and whether the FY116 budget (due at the legislature by end-August 2026) creates a two-fiscal-year simultaneous review -- the precondition for every Taiwan-side raise (the Executive Yuan package, Chunghwa Post, TRA); to track (open)

P-002: The FY2026 (Reiwa 8) regional minimum wage benchmark conclusion (4th subcommittee session noticed for 2026-07-23) and subsequent prefectural deliberations -- the next verifiable node on Japan's institutional line (open)

P-003: Formal approval, effectiveness and retroactive payment of the Chunghwa Post and TRA two-stage plans; results of the TRA driver exam (written test 2026-07-25) and the Irrigation Agency exam (2026-08-29) -- follow-up verifiable facts for the spread and recruitment layers (open)

同事件・三視角 / Three Perspectives on the Same Event / 同一イベント・三つの視点

• 繁體中文
• 日本語
• English

Internal citation chain

This card extends its target and links 4 published cards in total (all published, visible, relevant, transparent):

• ANK-2026-07-03-005 "The Taiwan-Japan 'Starting-Salary War for Talent': Taiwan's Executive Yuan Approves the Public-Sector Pay Package -- Senior Exam Level-3 Entry Salary Reaches NT$59,460 in ROC Year 116 (2027), Covering About 720,000 People; In the Same Period Japan's Alconix Lifts Its 2027 Graduate Starting Pay 3.1% to JPY330,000 and 39 Yamanashi Organizations Sign a Joint Wage Declaration" (published 2026-07-03) -> the extension target: all 18 new sources here (2026-07-03 to 07-23, organized into 12 layers) build on that card's 12 F-Units; the package itself, converted salary figures and Yamanashi's 21.8% are referenced to that card, not re-minted. Links: zh / ja / en
• ANK-2026-05-16-001 "The Two Faces of Taiwan's Labor Market Under the AI Super-Cycle -- Average Graduate Starting Pay Hits a Record NT$39,000, Yet 17.2% Still Earn Only the Minimum Wage and Nearly 70% of Employees Fall Below the Average; Electronics Overtime Hits a 47-Year High for the Period, Contrasted With Japanese Firms' Working-Hour Reform Amid a Low-Birth Labor Crunch" (published 2026-06-28) -> relation (CONTEXTUALIZE): that card's ROC year 114 (2025) graduate starting-pay statistics (NT$39,000 all-graduate average; NT$36,000 for university graduates) are the private baseline for Layer 2's recruitment queue; the metric difference (statistical averages vs. posted recruitment figures) is framed in Scope. Link: en
• ANK-2026-06-13-001 "Middle East Tensions Hit Japan's Manufacturing Procurement: Input Prices Up for 90%, Price-Hike Requests Over 70%, Cost Pass-Through Falling Behind, Wage-Hike Momentum Hits the Brakes (Nagoya CCI 57th Survey Down 11.8pt)" (published 2026-06-25) -> relation (CONTEXTUALIZE): that card's receding wage-hike momentum (Nagoya CCI member survey, May 2026) reads alongside Layer 8's "defensive raises" (2,359 listed filings) -- appetite receding while defensive raising spreads; different populations, juxtaposed not cross-validated. Link: en
• ANK-2026-07-10-006 "Decomposing the Formosa Plastics Group Big Four's NT$1,084.53 Hundred Million First-Half 2026 Profit: Q2 Combined NT$642.76 Hundred Million, Up 45.5% QoQ, a Swing From the NT$250.7 Hundred Million Net Loss of Q2 2025..." (published 2026-07-10) -> relation (CONNECT): the same-group earnings context for Layer 5's 4.5% raise (the union's demand itself cited improved earnings); profit figures per that card (company self-tallied basis). Link: en

Sources

1. [CNA #1537484] CNA (reporter Yu Hsiao-han), English translation of title: "Chunghwa Post to Give Flat Raises in July, Then Follow With 4% in ROC Year 116", 2026-07-16. https://www.cna.com.tw/news/ahel/202607160106.aspx
2. [CNA #1446555] CNA (reporter Huang Chiao-wen), English translation of title: "Taiwan Railway Plans a Two-Stage Pay Adjustment Covering Transferred and Company-Hired Staff", 2026-07-11. https://www.cna.com.tw/news/ahel/202607110130.aspx
3. [CNA #1308627] CNA (reporter Huang Chiao-wen), English translation of title: "TRA Recruits 45 Train Drivers; Formal-Appointment Starting Pay Above NT$50,000", 2026-07-03. https://www.cna.com.tw/news/ahel/202607030140.aspx
4. [CNA #1463413] CNA (reporter Wang Shu-fen), English translation of title: "Irrigation Service Recruits 274 at NT$44,300 Starting Pay, Benefits Referencing Civil Servants", 2026-07-13. https://www.cna.com.tw/news/ahel/202607130112.aspx
5. [CNA #1308276] CNA (reporter Chen Chih-chung), English translation of title: "Substitute-Teacher Union Urges Tiered Raises to Draw New Entrants Under the 4% Package", 2026-07-03. https://www.cna.com.tw/news/ahel/202607030055.aspx
6. [CNA #1420013] CNA (reporter Pan Tzu-yu), English translation of title: "Real Regular Earnings Up 1.27% in January-May, the Largest Rise in Six Years", 2026-07-10. https://www.cna.com.tw/news/afe/202607100170.aspx
7. [CNA #1485687] CNA (reporter Ho Hsiu-ling), English translation of title: "Formosa Plastics Group Settles 4.5% Raise, Above the Union's 3.66% Demand", 2026-07-14. https://www.cna.com.tw/news/afe/202607140148.aspx
8. [CNA #1593993] CNA (reporters Wang Cheng-chung, Lai Yu-chen), English translation of title: "KMT: Rigorous Budget Review to Guard the People's Hard-Earned Money", 2026-07-18. https://www.cna.com.tw/news/aipl/202607180206.aspx
9. [CNA #1462953] CNA (reporter Yeh Su-ping), English translation of title: "DPP: Budget Review Past 319 Days, Two Fiscal Years May Be Reviewed at Once", 2026-07-13. https://www.cna.com.tw/news/aipl/202607130094.aspx
10. [MHLW #1590625] Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare web page, English translation of title: "Central Minimum Wages Council (Subcommittee on the Benchmark)", crawled by this site 2026-07-17. https://www.mhlw.go.jp/stf/shingi/shingi-tingin_127941.html
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12. [PRTIMES #1347795] PR TIMES (Yudetaro System Co., Ltd.), English translation of title: "[Toward Industry-Leading Treatment in Food Service] Yudetaro System Confirms a 5th Consecutive Base-Pay Increase; FY2027 University-Graduate Starting Pay JPY355,000, High-School Graduates Up to JPY317,000", 2026-07-07. https://prtimes.jp/main/html/rd/p/000000003.000185769.html
13. [PRTIMES #1374168] PR TIMES (Kadokawa Dwango Gakuen), English translation of title: "N High School Group Raises Teachers' Starting Pay to Up to JPY300,000", 2026-07-09. https://prtimes.jp/main/html/rd/p/000000127.000076533.html
14. [PRTIMES #1481244] PR TIMES (F-Peri Inc.), English translation of title: "Nearly 70% Raise Pay Even With Falling Revenue and Profit: What Data on 2,359 Listed Companies Reveals About 'Defensive Raises' [FY2026]", 2026-07-14. https://prtimes.jp/main/html/rd/p/000000024.000174490.html
15. [PRTIMES #1643099] PR TIMES (Kakaku.com, Inc.), English translation of title: "Job-Search Aggregator 'Kyujin Box' Publishes Its '2026 Wage Hike Reality Survey'", 2026-07-22. https://prtimes.jp/main/html/rd/p/000001044.000001455.html
16. [PRTIMES #1657021] PR TIMES (Mynavi Corporation), English translation of title: "Mynavi Publishes Its 'Survey of Companies on Part-Time Wage Hikes (2026 Edition)'", 2026-07-23. https://prtimes.jp/main/html/rd/p/000002466.000002955.html
17. [PRTIMES #1657971] PR TIMES (Regional Style Co., Ltd.), English translation of title: "'Regional Career' Placement Results for April-June 2026 -- U-turn/I-turn Ratio at 43.9%, Still Above 40%", 2026-07-23. https://prtimes.jp/main/html/rd/p/000000008.000008746.html
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