A lot of information has emerged regarding the Eighth Pay Commission for central government employees and pensioners. Nearly 10 million employees and retired employees across the country are closely monitoring the commission's recommendations. The commission has now reached a crucial stage and is in direct negotiations with employee unions.

The Eighth Central Pay Commission has convened a meeting of employee unions, federations, and employee representatives from the central government and union territories in Delhi on August 7-10, 2026. The unions' suggestions and demands will be discussed at this meeting. The commission will then prepare a final report.

The main focus of this meeting will be on basic pay, fitment factor, dearness allowance (DA), house rent allowance (HRA), travel allowance (TA) and total salary structure.

Employee unions have demanded a fitment factor of 3.83 to increase basic pay. The current basic salary is converted to a new salary based on the fitment factor. If this factor is increased, employees' salaries could see a significant increase.

Additionally, the All India NPS Employees Federation (AINPSEF) has proposed changing the salary calculation methodology to take family expenses into account. This is likely to lead to a further increase in the basic salary.

Regarding travel allowance (TA), a proposal to provide Level-1 employees with a monthly travel allowance of ₹9,000 is also under discussion. If the government accepts these major demands of the employee unions, the total salary of Level-1 employees could increase from ₹37,080 to ₹61,344. This means a potential increase of approximately 65%. However, this is not a final decision, and the situation will become clear only after the commission's recommendations and government approval.

PC: Punjab Kesari