Bhubaneswar: Before Delhi elections in the coming February, the Modi government Thursday approved the setting up of the 8th Central Pay Commission to review and recommend salary adjustments for over one crore central government employees and pensioners.
The year of implementation of new pay commission has been fixed at year 2026, because the 7th pay Commission implemented in 2016 – the customary practice of 10-year gap.
Briefing to media persons, Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said, “Prime Minister has approved the 8th Central Pay Commission for all employees of Central Government."
The names for the head and members of the 8th Pay panel will be announced soon, the minister added.
While Central Govt employees have been waiting to hear this good news from Modi govt in 2024 budget, as the Central govt employee union has demanded setting up of 8th Pay commission during 2024 budget discussion meeting with FM Nirmal Sitharaman, the FM didn’t announce the same in her budgest speech.
With Delhi elections due in Feb, the announcement of setting up of 8th Pay Commission will have a profound impact on the upcoming Delhi polls as they form a sizeable chunk in certain constituencies.
Moreover, as the implementation year will be Jan 1 , 2026, when the two significant polls – West Bengal Assembly elections in June 2026 and UP assembly polls in April 2027 are due– the 8th Pay commission may play a key role in the poll outcomes.
CENTRAL GOVT EMPLOYEE SIZE
As on date, the size of central govt employee and pensioners nationally stood at 3.5million and 5.2mn respectively, as stated in the Budget 2024-25..
WHY 8th PAY COMMISSION KEY TO POLLS?
The main reason for the pay commission assuming a big role in polls lies in the significant hike in minimum salary of Central Govt employees, which will cast a cascading effect on the state government employees in all states, as they will also see salary hikes in accordance with 8th Pay Commission pay matrix. A State govt can deny 8th pay commission benefits to its employees on its own peril only.
WHAT WILL BE MINIMUM SALARY UNDER 8th PAY COMMISSION?
As per a Central Govt employee Union report, the minimum pay scale under 8th Pay Commision will rise to a whopping Rs 41,000 vis-à-vis Rs 18,000 under 7th pay commission.
They have presented the following calculation to arrive at the minimum salary in 8th pay commission. The CGEU report says the following. It elaborates:
- 7th Pay Commission has described how it arrived Minimum Pay
- To estimate the minimum pay in the government,
- the VI CPC used the norms set by the 15th Indian Labor Conference (ILC) in 1957 to determine the need-based minimum wage for a single industrial worker.
The norms set by the ILC are as below:
- A need-based minimum wage for a single worker should cover all the needs of a worker’s family.
- The normative family is taken to consist of a spouse and two children below the age of 14.
- With the husband assigned 1 unit, wife, 0.8 unit and two children, 0.6 units each,
- the minimum wage needs to address 3 consumption units
- The specifications were derived from the recommendations of Dr. Wallace Aykroyd, the noted nutritionist, which stated that an average Indian adult engaged in moderate activity should, on a daily basis, consume 2,700 calories comprising 65 grams of protein and around 45-60 grams of fat.
- Dr Aykroyd had further pointed out that animal proteins, such as milk, eggs, fish, liver and meat, are biologically more efficient than vegetable proteins and suggested that they should form at least one-fifth of the total protein intake
- The clothing requirements should be based on per capita consumption of 18 yards per annum, which gives 72 yards per annum (5.5 meters per month) for the average worker’s family.
- For housing, the rent corresponding to the minimum area provided under the government’s industrial housing schemes is to be taken.
- The 15th ILC kept it at 7.5 percent of the total minimum wage
- Fuel, lighting and other items of expenditure should constitute an additional 20 percent of the total minimum wage
After considering all relevant factors the Commission has recommended for keeping the minimum pay in government at Rs 18,000 per month, w.e.f. 01.01.2016.
As per their calculations, based on current inflation rate, the minimum salary of a central govt employee comes out at Rs 40,798.
The CGEU report predicts, “Based on the current inflation rates and consumer price index, the 8th CPC Minimum Pay will be set at Rs.41000. And for pensioners, the minum pension will be approximately around Rs 18000. Consequently, this will lead to a Fitment factor of 2.28."
The 7th Pay Commission had a fitment factor of 2.57.
WHAT IS FITMENT FACTOR: This is term first used by the 7th Pay Commission. It means a multiplication value that when multiplied with the basic pay of 6th Pay Commission will result into a new basic pay.
