8th Pay Commission Salary and Pension Hike for Central Govt Employees Under Unified Pension Scheme, with JCM Member Predictions on Fitment Factor

There could be some good news in the offing for central employees and pensioners because the Central Government may augment the fitment factor very soon, leading to a significant jump in salaries and pensions.

If media reports are to be believed, Shiv Gopal Mishra, Secretary of the National Council of Joint Consultative Machinery, has recommended that the government augment the fitment factor to 2.86. However, there has been no official response from the government, and much of the discussion is based on hypotheses.

What Is the Quantum of Salary Hike?

If the Government agrees to the hike in the fitment factor to 2.86 in the 8th Pay Commission, the minimum salary of a central government employee will increase from Rs 17,990 to Rs 51,451.

In the Seventh Pay Commission, the fitment factor was fixed at 2.57, and the minimum salary was increased from Rs 7,000 to Rs 17,990.

What Is the Fitment Factor In the 8th Pay Commission?

The fitment factor is a benchmark used to decide the salary and pension of Central Government employees. Although no announcement has been forthcoming from the Government, it is widely believed that the Government will constitute the 8th Pay Commission by 2026, and the review will take another year before it is ready for implementation.

The fitment factor will also affect pensioners, especially since the minimum pension under the UPS is directly tied to salary adjustments, which will depend upon the 8th Pay Commission’s recommendations.

For the uninitiated, the UPS, or the Unified Pension Scheme, is a newly launched lifelong guaranteed pension plan for central government employees that will start on April 1, 2025. The scheme’s salient features include 50% of the average monthly salary drawn during the last 12 months before retirement. However, employees have been given the option to choose the National Pension System (NPS) or the UPS, with the latter affording the security of a fixed pension.

The UPS pension scheme will decide average salaries, and it will be impacted by the 8th Pay Commission, which is speculated to take effect on January 1, 2026. This is also in line with previous precedents where pay revisions had been effected every decade to adjust salaries and pensions for central employees.