The attention of millions of employees across the country is currently focused on the 8th Pay Commission. More than one crore central government employees and pensioners are eagerly awaiting the commission's recommendations. State government employees are also closely monitoring this decision, as state governments often revise employees' salaries based on the Central Pay Commission's recommendations. Therefore, the biggest question now is how much will employees' salaries increase after the implementation of the 8th Pay Commission?

The most discussed fitment factor was
during the 7th Pay Commission, when the minimum basic salary was raised from ₹7,000 to ₹18,000. At that time, a fitment factor of 2.57 was applied. That is, the basic salary of ₹7,000 was multiplied by 2.57 to arrive at the new minimum basic pay of ₹18,000.

What is fitment factor?

The fitment factor is a type of multiplier. By multiplying the current basic salary by this number, the new basic salary can be estimated. This also takes into account dearness allowance. As inflation increases, the actual cost of salaries decreases. Therefore, the purpose behind this is to offset the impact of inflation and provide a direct salary increase to employees.

What will be the salary if 4.00 fitment factor is applied?

If a 4.00 fitment factor is implemented in the 8th Pay Commission, the current minimum basic salary could increase by ₹18,000 to ₹72,000. The 4.00 fitment factor has been demanded by the BPMS (Bharatiya Prakash Mazdoor Sangh).

He calculated this amount in three stages. He based his calculations on an 86.76 percent increase in per capita net national income from 2016-17 to 2024-25. Then, assuming a family of five, he estimated this amount to ₹88,524. However, considering the financial burden this would place on  the government treasury, he called for reducing this amount to ₹72,000.

What will be the salary if the fitment factor is 3.833?

On the other hand, the National Council of JCM Staff Side and the Bharat Pensioners Samaj have demanded a fitment factor of 3.833. If this fitment factor is implemented, the minimum basic pay will increase to ₹69,000.

The staff side presented this figure based on the expenses of a family of five. This includes food, clothing, housing, fuel, skill development, weddings, entertainment, and technology. After calculating all these expenses, the total comes to ₹68,947. The demand has been made to round this amount to ₹69,000 as the minimum basic pay.

The Ministerial Staff Association (Survey of India) has demanded a fitment factor of 3.61. If this fitment factor is implemented, the minimum basic pay could be ₹65,000. The organization arrived at this figure based on the 15th ILC norms and the criteria from the Reptakos Brett case.

The Railway Senior Citizens Welfare Society did not mention any specific fitment factor. However, they say that the benefit of the fitment factor is often limited to increasing dearness allowance only. Consequently, the actual salary of employees does not increase significantly.

What is the difference between a 3.61 and a 4.00 fitment factor?

If we talk about a Level-1 employee, then if a fitment factor of 3.61 is applied, the basic salary will be Rs 64,980.

If a fitment factor of 4.00 is applied, the same salary will be Rs 72 thousand.

That means, there can be a difference of up to Rs 7,020 per month between the two.

How much salary can be earned at different levels?

The staff side has also prepared the complete pay matrix based on a fitment factor of 3.833.

Level-1: Rs 69,000

Level-6: Rs 1,35,700

Merged Level-9 and 10: Rs 2,15,100

On the other hand, BPMS has introduced a pay matrix based on a fitment factor of 4.00. According to this, salaries start at ₹72,000 at Level 1 and can go up to ₹10 lakh by Level 18.

The 8th Pay Commission is also important for pensioners.
The impact of the 8th Pay Commission is not limited to currently working employees. This decision is also important for pensioners. If the basic pay remains low, it impacts the pension, gratuity limit, and commutation amount received after retirement. Therefore, both employees and pensioners are now focused on which fitment factor the government will consider in the 8th Pay Commission and how much the basic salary of employees will increase accordingly.

PC: Rochak Khabre