8th Pay Commission: New Formula Could Trigger 400% Salary Jump for Senior Employees

New Delhi: The Eighth Pay Commission is still far away from formal recommendations, but its discussion has intensified among the employees. The reason is the demand of a large organization of railway employees, in which it has been proposed to implement different fitment factors for different pay levels. If this proposal is accepted, the basic salary of some senior employees may increase by up to 400 percent. For this reason, curiosity about this has increased among government employees and pensioners.

What is the whole matter of the fitment factor?

The fitment factor in the Pay Commission is the formula through which the existing basic pay is converted into the new salary. In the Seventh Pay Commission, this factor was kept at 2.57. Now the Railway Technical Supervisors Association (IRTSA) has proposed five different fitment factors. The organization says that it is not appropriate to apply the same formula for all employees, because responsibilities and technical work change at different levels.

How much can the salary increase?

According to the proposal, there has been a demand to keep the fitment factor at 4.38 for Level-17 and Level-18 employees. If this happens, then the new basic salary of an employee who was getting a basic salary of Rs 2.5 lakh can reach around Rs 11 lakh. There may also be a big jump in the salaries of middle level employees. Although this is only the demand of the employee organizations, the final decision has to be taken by the government and the Pay Commission.

What else are the employee organizations demanding?

The railway employees' organization has also raised the demand for a separate pay structure for technical staff. Apart from this, demands for 5 percent annual salary increase, adding 50 percent dearness allowance to basic pay and faster promotion are also included. Many employee organizations are talking about increasing the minimum basic pay from Rs 69 thousand to Rs 72 thousand.

What is the biggest challenge facing the government?

Experts believe that such a huge salary increase can increase economic pressure on the government. With the increase in salary, expenses related to pension, allowances and retirement will also increase rapidly. Apart from the central government, it will also affect the state governments because often the states also increase the salaries of their employees on the basis of the recommendations of the Central Pay Commission.

What can change the family based pay formula?

Employee organizations have also demanded changes in the “family unit” formula. He says that earlier, where a family of three members was considered the base, now it should be increased to five members. Organizations argue that in today's time, the burden on employees due to children, elderly parents and rising inflation is greater than before.

8th Pay Commission Proposed Fitment Factors