8th pay commission: Here's why NC-JCM wants employee levels combined — Pay scale merger proposal explained

The 8th pay commission is in the discussion phase before it releases its official recommendations on pay hikes, allowances, salary structure, and more. Constituted once a decade, it is expected to make significant decisions impacting pay for central government employees and pensioners.

Around 1 crore beneficiaries — nearly 50 lakh central government employees and close to 65 lakh retired central government pensioners, including defence personnel and retirees, will benefit from the recommendations across 18 employee levels.

Chaired by former Supreme Court Justice Ranjana Prakash
Desai, the commission includes Pankaj Jain, a former IAS, as Member-Secretary, and Professor Pulak Ghosh, tenured Professor of Finance, Member of the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister, as a Member of the Commission, the 8th CPC's official Terms of Reference (ToR) were released late last year.

8th CPC discussions, meetings ongoing

The commission closed its submission window for suggestions on 15 June and will do so for data on 31 July. The 8th CPC has since March conducted multiple state visits to meet employee representative groups, unions and stakeholders with plans for more meetings across states and union territories (UTs) in due course. The panel is expected to collect data and analyse it to decide allowances, pension formula and salary structures for employee and retiree groups.

These meetings are significant as suggestions made by these groups are expected to play an important role in shaping the commission's deliberations concerning remuneration and pension structures for the central government workforce. These groups collectively represent a large number of employees and pensioners, including defence and railway staff.

NC-JMC seeking substantial overhaul

The National Council – Joint Consultative Machinery (NC-JCM), one of the three major employee groups is seeking substantial overhaul of salaries, simplification of pay levels, promotion systems to boost morale and performance, pensions and allowances for central government employees and pensioners. Its demands are as follows:

• Hike in the minimum basic pay for central government employees to ₹69,000.
• Unified pay matrix up to Level 13, simplified salary architecture, and ousing and utility-linked structured pay for pay structure reform.
• Annual increment of 6%, up from current 3%, inflation-linked wage model, and pension reform using structural alignment with revised pay.

Pay scale merger demand, explained

One of the NC-JCM’s key demands is that central government employee levels be merged to simplify the pay matrix and make its “fairer”.

It has proposed that the current levels 2 and 3 be merged into one pay scale, similarly, levels 4 and 5, levels 7 and 8, and levels 9 and 10, each be merged to create unified pay scales. The justification for the demands is that actual pay for these levels is already close, and employees complete similar work assignments, but the gaps can create long-term resentment between ranks.

It has also as a special provision, asked that the existing Level 5 employees — in a one-time step — be upgraded and merged with Level 6. For this, it noted that Group C employees across the Central Secretriat, Defence, Post and Railways have been “stuck” at level 5 for many years, and the upgrade resolves that stagnation for the broader workforce.

When are final recommendations expected?

As per the plan, the CPC is expected to submit its final recommendations around 18 months after its constitution on 3 November 2025. This means that the earlier we can get the panel's submissions, the better. February or April 2027 is the earliest we can get them.

Further, based on past trends, once the pay commission's recommendations are made, the rollout takes another two to three years to complete. This means that hikes announced in 2027 may only be fully implemented by 2029 or 2030.