8th Pay Commission- Good news for government employees. Central employees and pensioners are eagerly waiting for the 8th Pay Commission. As much as they want it to come soon, there are reports of it being implemented late i.e. from the year 2027. In such a situation, the association of government employees is demanding from the government that it may take time to be implemented but it should be considered applicable from January 2026.
Shiv Gopal Mishra, Staff Side Secretary of National Council-Joint Consultative Machinery (NC-JCM), has said that even though the recommendations of the 8th Pay Commission may be implemented late, the effect of increase in salary and pension should be considered from January 1, 2026.
Mishra says that the effect of every pay commission should last for a maximum of 10 years. The 7th Pay Commission was implemented from January 1, 2016, so the 8th Pay Commission should be considered applicable from January 1, 2026. The recommendations of the 7th Pay Commission were implemented from July 2016, but employees were given arrears of 6 months from January to June. Similarly, employees should also get arrears in the 8th Pay Commission.
However, the 8th Pay Commission has not been formally constituted yet. The Cabinet had approved it in January 2025, but the notification regarding the Terms of Reference (ToR) of the Commission has not been issued yet. Mishra says that the government should give the green signal to the ToR soon, so that the commission can be formed and discussions can be started with the employees.
Any pay commission takes about 18 months to prepare its report. After this, the government takes another 3 to 9 months to review and approve the recommendations. This means that it is certain that the commission’s report will take time to come and the final decision on it will be taken. But the employees demand that no matter how much the delay is, the effective date should remain 1 January 2026.
The biggest question is how much hike will the employees get. It is believed that the fitment factor in the 8th Pay Commission can be between 1.8 to 2.46. This factor is multiplied with the basic salary of the employee and on this basis the new salary is decided.
If the fitment factor goes up to 2.46, then employees can get an increase of 14% to 34% compared to the current salary. However, it is important to note that at the time of implementation of every new pay commission, dearness allowance (DA) starts from zero.