8th Pay Commission: Salary would be hiked to Rs 57,200. this is what the latest news is

There has been talk of the 8th Pay Commission and an unprecedented increase in the dearness allowance for the year 2025. There has been a trend of establishing new pay commissions every ten years, with the last one being in 2014 and this will lapse in 2025. The7th Pay Commission was established in February 2014 to commence from 1st January 2016, which is set to end on December 31st 2025.

The expectation is, therefore, that the budget for 2025-26, likely to be presented around February 2025, will include the 8th Pay Commission, which could be implemented in January 2026. But this has not yet been officially confirmed. It will probably require approval of the cabinet, which is still due. In course of time, all these decisions will be made. If the 8th Pay Commission is implemented, there is a good possibility of minimum pay scales of the employees being increased to 34,000, and pensions to 17,000 representing an increase of approximately 186 percent increase in the salaries.

Some employee groups have already given their proposals. Recently, central trade unions and the Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh went to meet with Finance Minister Sitharaman advocating for the setting up of the 8th Pay Commission which would concern 5 million government employees and 6.7 million pensioners. Last month also the (employee side) N C J C M or National Council Joint Consultative Machinery reached out to the Union Cabinet Secretary asking for the expeditious set up of a new Pay Commission. They pointed out that it is now over nine years since the 7th Pay Commission recommendations were implemented and the next pay and pension changes should take place from January 1, 2026.

Earlier, Rajya Sabha MPs Ramjilal Suman and Javed Ali Khan during the monsoon session raised this issue to which Minister of State for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary at that time had answered that 8th Pay Commission was not a proposal that was being looked at by the Central Government as of now where there were only 2 representations already.

How will the introduction of the 8th Pay Commission affect the fitment factor?

As per the latest reports released by the media, it appears that the introduction of the 8th Pay Commission will increase the fitment factor. Employees of the center have been consistently asking for an increase in the factor to 3.68. For this reason, it is believed that the Modi goverment might proceed in increasing it from its current 2.57 to approximately 2.86 percent.

At the moment however, the fitment factor for central government employees is set at 2.57 with an initital pay of Rs. 18,000. A starting payment of Rs. 20,000 is provided for employees but once the ratio for the fitment is applied the end result should be Rs 51400 (20000 × 2.57). Now, if the ratio for fitment is amended to be 2.86 in the 8th Commission, this total should then rise to Rs 57,200 (20,000 × 2.86). Furthermore, pensions were previously expected to be between Rs. 9000 and Rs. 25740 but these values may also increase significantly.