8th pay commission
The demands of central government employees and pensioners have now formally reached the 8th Central Pay Commission. The process of submitting the memorandum was completed on June 15 and now the Commission will consider these demands, after which it will submit its final recommendations to the government.
Its functioning started after the Central Government approved the Terms of Reference of the Commission in October 2025. The commission has about 10 months left to finalize its recommendations. According to media reports, the commission will give suggestions regarding amendments in the salaries, pensions and allowances of about 55 lakh central employees and 69 lakh pensioners.
Biggest demand to increase fitment factor
Employee organizations and various associations have demanded increase in the fitment factor and a major increase in the minimum basic salary in their memorandums given to the Commission. Fitment factor is the multiplier on the basis of which the new salary is decided by increasing the existing basic salary. Inflation, cost of living and other economic factors are taken into account.
Experts believe that the government can fix the fitment factor of more than 2.5, while some employee organizations have demanded to increase it to 3.15.
Demand to restore the old pension scheme
Employee organizations have also raised the demand for re-implementation of the Old Pension Scheme (OPS) in place of the National Pension System (NPS). Apart from this, there has also been a demand for improvement in House Rent Allowance (HRA), Risk Allowance, Bonus, leave benefits and other benefits related to retirement.
Recent increase in DA and DR
The central government had increased Dearness Allowance (DA) and Dearness Relief (DR) by 2 percent in January 2026. After this the total rate of DA and DR has increased to 60 percent.
The government decides to increase DA twice every year. The next DA, to be implemented from July 2026, will usually be announced in September. It will be calculated on the basis of All India Consumer Price Index for Industrial Workers (AICPI-IW) data for May and June 2026.
Meetings have started in many states
The 8th Pay Commission has held consultation meetings in Delhi, Ladakh, Jammu and Kashmir, Hyderabad, Telangana and Maharashtra. The first formal talks have also taken place with employee organizations in Uttarakhand. The next meetings of the Commission will be held in Lucknow, Bhubaneswar and Kolkata by July.
Employees are hopeful that the recommendations of the commission may lead to a big increase in their salaries and pensions, although the final decision will depend on the fitment factor to be decided by the government.
