8th Pay Commission will be a boon for government employees! Know how this huge change will happen in basic salary

The murmur regarding the 8th Pay Commission has intensified among about 50 lakh government employees and 70 lakh pensioners across the country. Everyone is eagerly waiting for the increase in their salary and pension. Meanwhile, during the preparations for the Pay Commission, a ‘new mathematics’ has emerged which has heated up the market of discussions. If the government accepts this demand of the employee organizations, then there will be such a jump in the salaries of lakhs of employees that everyone will be surprised to see.

What is the new formula of ‘Family Unit’?

Whenever the Pay Commission decides the minimum basic salary, it takes into account the expenses of a family. This is called ‘family unit’. In the 7th Pay Commission, the family unit was considered to be 3—i.e. employee (1 unit), spouse (0.8 units) and two children (0.6 + 0.6 units). On this basis, the minimum basic salary was fixed at Rs 18,000.

Now employee organizations and the National Council Joint Consultative Machinery (NC-JCM) have demanded that this ‘family unit’ should be increased from 3 to 5. He argues that in today’s time, an employee is not only responsible for his wife and children, but also for his parents and in-laws. In this new proposed formula, a total of 5 units of mathematics has been prepared by including employee (1 unit), spouse (1 unit), two children (0.8 + 0.8 units) and dependent parents/in-laws (0.8 units).

There will be more than 50% increase in basic salary

Experts believe that if the family unit is increased from 3 to 5, then the mathematics of basic salary will change completely. According to experts, if this formula had been implemented earlier, the minimum salary in the 7th Pay Commission itself could have been around Rs 27,600 instead of Rs 18,000. NC-JCM has now proposed that the minimum basic salary on the basis of 5 family units should be directly increased to Rs 69,000 and the fitment factor should be kept at 3.833.

There will be a huge increase not only in salary but also in allowances

The impact of this change will not be limited to only Level-1 employees, but its direct benefits will be available to employees at every pay level. The biggest advantage of increasing the basic salary is that other allowances related to it like Dearness Allowance (DA), House Rent Allowance (HRA) and Travel Allowance (TA) will also automatically increase. Since all these allowances are calculated on the basis of basic salary, there will be a huge increase in the total take-home salary.

What is the government’s stance?

At present, the 8th Pay Commission is busy collecting information related to salary and allowances from different departments. This new mathematics of the ‘family unit’ is expected to be discussed in meetings to be held in the coming months. Employees’ organizations say that in view of the increase in the expenses on treatment, children’s education, electricity, water and fuel in the last few years, the old formula has now become ineffective. However, right now this is only a proposal and the final decision on this has to be taken by the government. If the government approves it, it will prove to be a big gift for millions of families in the country.