These days, discussions about salary increase regarding the 8th Pay Commission are in full swing among central employees and pensioners. The Commission is going to hold important talks with employees, pensioners and other stakeholders in Mumbai and Bengaluru in October 2026.
The meeting is proposed to be held in Bengaluru on October 7 and 8, while the discussion will be held in Mumbai on October 22 and 23. Earlier in the month of September, a round of meetings had also been successfully completed in Chandigarh, Chennai, Puducherry and Jaipur. Salary and Fitment Factor are the main issues in all these meetings. Let us know its complete details in detail.
Mathematics of Fitment Factor and Basic Salary
The role of fitment factor is very important in determining the new basic salary of employees. A fitment factor of 2.57 was implemented during the last 7th Pay Commission. This meant that the new basic pay was decided by multiplying the basic salary of the Sixth Pay Commission by 2.57. However, this did not at all mean that the total gross salary of the employee directly increased by 2.57 times.
The reality is that at the time of implementation of the 7th CPC, the increase in average gross salary was only around 14.29%. The biggest reason for this was the Dearness Allowance i.e. DA (Dearness Allowance) of that time.
Why is there a difference between basic pay and gross salary?
The increase in basic pay and gross salary can always be different during the implementation of Pay Commission. The main reason for this is along with DA there are other allowances like house rent allowance i.e. HRA and transport allowance. For example, at the time of implementation of the Sixth Pay Commission, DA under the Fifth CPC was around 47%. At the same time, in the Sixth Commission, a fitment factor of 1.86 was fixed, due to which a huge increase of about 54% was seen in the gross salary.
In contrast, when the 7th CPC came into effect, DA was already at 125%, meaning employees were already getting an effective fitment factor of 2.25 times under the 6th Pay Commission. This is the reason why despite having a fitment factor of 2.57, the average increase in gross salary remained quite limited.
What could be the impact of the 8th Pay Commission?
Now the biggest question is whether something similar will be seen in the 8th Pay Commission also? The direct answer to this will depend on the DA in force at the time when the recommendations of the 8th CPC are officially approved.
According to the initial estimates given, the current DA is 60% and if this report is implemented in the second half of the year 2027, then the DA can increase to around 66%. In such a situation, it would not be right to estimate the increase in total salary by looking only at the fitment factor. The final picture will be clear only when the government gives its approval to the report and the new salary structure.
Probable salary of level-8 employees
As an example, the potential gross salary of a Level-8 employee can be assessed on different fitment factors of 2.0, 2.38 and 2.57. According to these approximate calculations, if the fitment factor of 2.57 is applied, the gross salary of a Level-8 employee is estimated to be around ₹1.52 lakh per month.
Accordingly, there appears to be an increase of approximately 68% in the gross pay. However, it is very important to note that this figure is not based on any kind of official announcement, rather it is just an illustrative calculation.