Key Highlights
- Experts agree this will be the single most important driver of pay hikes under the 8th CPC.
- During the 7th Pay Commission, a fitment factor of 2.57 was used, which significantly raised salaries across the board. According to Ramachandran Krishnamoorthy, Director – Payroll Services at Nexdigm, the fitment factor under the 8th CPC could fall in the range of 1.9 to 2.5, while Pratik Vaidya, MD and Chief Vision Officer at Karma Management Global Consulting Solutions, estimates a slightly wider range of 1.83 to 2.46, without ruling out a repeat of 2.57.
- A uniform fitment factor would ensure the same percentage increase for all employees, though higher pay levels would see much larger gains in absolute rupee terms. Illustrations suggest that with a fitment factor of around 2.15, an entry-level employee at Level 1 could see their basic pay rise from ₹18,000 to about ₹38,700, while a Level 10 officer’s basic pay could increase from ₹56,100 to over ₹1.2 lakh.
- Senior-most officers at Level 18 could see their basic salary exceed ₹5.3 lakh. Some projections assume even higher fitment factors, such as 2.86, to show the upper bound of possible increases.
- Under such a scenario, basic pay for lower-level staff like peons and clerks could rise by over ₹30,000, while Group A officers could see increases exceeding ₹1 lakh per month.
