8th Pay Commission: 30% Salary Hike Likely for Central Government Employees
8th Pay Commission may bring 30% salary hike for central government employees from January 2026.
Central government employees and pensioners across India are eagerly awaiting updates from the 8th Pay Commission, which is expected to roll out new pay scale revisions soon. February 2026 is shaping up as a critical month, as more than 1.1 crore central government employees look forward to the first major salary adjustments of the year following the conclusion of the 7th Pay Commission cycle on December 31, 2025.
As of December 2025, the dearness allowance (DA) for central government employees stood at 58%, with an anticipated 2% increase from January 2026 expected to raise it to 60%. The hike is based on the All-India Consumer Price Index for Industrial Workers (AICPI-IW), which remained steady at 148.2 in December, after minor increases in the previous months. This adjustment is likely to be announced before the Holi festival on March 4, enabling arrears for January and February to be paid in a lump sum.
The government recently launched the official 8th Pay Commission website and invited structured feedback from ministries, departments, employees, and other stakeholders through an 18-question online questionnaire hosted on MyGov.in. The deadline for submission is March 16, 2026, with only online responses being considered. This process aims to incorporate stakeholder inputs into key pay, allowance, and other compensation revisions.
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Salary projections indicate significant hikes, particularly for employees in Levels 1 to 5. Under a fitment factor of 2.0 or higher, basic pay for lower-level employees could jump substantially, with minimum pay potentially increasing from Rs 18,000 to Rs 46,260. This could translate to a 30–34% effective increase for many levels, alongside arrears from January 1, 2026, until implementation.
While the official rollout of the 8th Pay Commission recommendations could take over a year, the projected revisions have generated excitement among government staff. Fitment factors and DA adjustments could result in lump-sum payouts running into several lakhs for employees across different pay levels, reflecting one of the largest expected salary overhauls in recent years.
The 8th Pay Commission’s updates not only aim to improve employee compensation but also to align salaries with inflation and living costs, offering a major financial boost to central government employees and pensioners in India.
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