8th Pay Commission – Fitment Factor will be the basis for Central Employees’ Salary, Know the Update

8th Pay Commission: All central government employees and pensioners are now eagerly watching the Modi government, as everyone is anxiously awaiting the implementation of the 8th Pay Commission. The exact timeline for the implementation of the 8th Pay Commission is still unclear. The formula for increasing the salaries of central government employees will remain the fitment factor.

Employee organisations are demanding a higher fitment factor compared to the 7th Pay Commission, citing inflation as the reason. A major question remains: what fitment factor will the 8th Pay Commission committee determine? Based on this, the salaries of central government employees will see a significant jump.

There are approximately 1.25 crore central government employees and pensioners across the country. This includes over 50 lakh employees and 70 lakh pensioners. All of them are waiting for the implementation of the 8th Pay Commission’s recommendations.

According to employee organisations, considering inflation and stagnant incomes over the years, they are demanding a fitment factor between 3.0 and 3.25. Based on these demands, the Federation of National Postal Organisations has also submitted an official proposal.

Through this proposal, the organisation has demanded a real improvement in salaries. This will increase the economic capacity of the employees. This demand has become a subject of debate on social media. Employees are calculating their salaries based on pay levels 1 to 18.

The 8th Pay Commission is expected to bring good fortune to central government employees and pensioners. However, some experts are more cautious regarding this demand. Kotak Institutional Equities estimates that the fitment factor is likely to be around 1.8.

Ambition Capital, on the other hand, believes that the total salary increase is likely to be between 30 and 34 per cent. This translates to a fitment factor in the range of 1.8 to 2.46. Meanwhile, former Finance Secretary SC Garg also considers a figure between 1.92 and 2.08 to be more practical and warns that a very high factor could put immense pressure on the government exchequer.

In the new pay commission, the basic salary of central government employees will increase based on the fitment factor. This will be used to convert the existing basic salary and pension to the new rate. For example, if the current minimum basic salary is ₹18,000 and the fitment factor is 3.0, it will directly increase to ₹54,000.

Previously, in the 7th Pay Commission, this factor was 2.57. Therefore, even a slight change in this factor can have a significant impact on salary, pension, and dearness allowance (DA).