The 8th Pay Commission was approved by the Union Cabinet on January 16 for revising the salaries of central government employees. However despite the government approval, an official announcement is still awaited.

Currently the salary structure for central employees follows the recommendations of the 7th Pay Commission which came into effect in 2016. Several government employees are still waiting for the release of the terms of Reference for 8th Pay Commission.

What is a fitment factor and its affects on salary hike

A fitment factors points out to how much the revised salary will be on the base salary. It refers to the multiplication unit which is used for revising the base salaries and pensions of government employees.

A fitment factor of 2.57 means a 157 per cent increase in salary. For the 7th pay commission, the fitment factor of 2.57 led to the salary hike from ₹7,000 to Rs. 18,000. The revision of salary depends on the fitment factor, which is a multiplier applied to current basic pay. In the current 7th Pay Commission the fitment factor was at 2.57. While the term of the 7th Pay Commission is going to end on 31 December 2025, there are no official announcement related to the 8th pay commission.

Since 1947, there have been seven Central Pay Commissions. A new pay commission is set up every 10 years to introduce revisions in the salaries of Central employees and pensioners.

What may be the hikes in 8th pay commission

According to reports, there could be a rise in the basic pay in Level 1 in the range of ₹18,000 to ₹51,480. While the changes for level 2, which includes lower division clerks, can be a hike to ₹56,914.

For level 3 this raise could be from ₹21,700 currently to ₹62,062. This will keep going up as the Levels go higher with the Level 10, which includes Group A officers, expected to get a hike to ₹1,60,446, according to an NDTV report.