Government Services

8th Pay Commission Salary Hike: What Is Known and What Is Guesswork

No official 8th Pay Commission salary table exists yet. Any level-wise hike you see is an estimate built on an assumed fitment factor.

Written by Vikram Desai

Published 28 September 2026·7 min read

On this page8 sections

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No official 8th Pay Commission salary table exists yet. The Commission, set up on 3 November 2025, has 18 months to report and had submitted nothing by 16 September 2026. Every level-wise salary list online rests on an assumed fitment factor. What you can work out today is how much of a headline hike is new money, since 60% DA already sits on your basic pay.

Key facts

Item	Position on 16 September 2026
8th CPC constituted	3 November 2025
Report due	Within 18 months of constitution
Revised pay matrix	Not published
Fitment factor	Not announced
Effective date	Not fixed; the government said it would normally be expected from 1 January 2026
Current pay structure	7th CPC pay matrix, Level 1 (₹18,000) to Level 18 (₹2,50,000)
Current DA and DR	60% from 1 January 2026
Government on the fiscal cost	Known only after the recommendations are made and accepted (Rajya Sabha, 10 February 2026)

For the Commission’s timeline and terms of reference, see our 8th Pay Commission status page. This page deals with what the award could mean for your pay slip.

What decides the salary hike

Your revised pay will depend on four decisions, none of which has been made:

#	Item	Details
1	The fitment factor.	Your basic pay on the effective date is multiplied by this number. The 7th CPC used 2.57.
2	The pay matrix.	The result is rounded up to the nearest cell in your level of the new matrix. The Commission may keep 18 levels or redraw them.
3	The effective date.	A date earlier than the implementation date creates arrears.
4	Allowances.	HRA, transport allowance and dozens of others are reviewed separately and can change the in-hand result as much as basic pay.

Most of a fitment factor is not a raise. The 7th CPC report says 2.25 of its 2.57 simply absorbed DA, assumed at 125% on 1 January 2016. The real increase was 14.29%. Our fitment factor explainer covers that arithmetic step by step.

Pay matrix levels under the 7th CPC

The starting (entry) pay of each level is the base any 8th CPC estimate works from. These figures come from Table 5 of the 7th CPC report.

Level	Entry pay	Level	Entry pay
1	₹18,000	11	₹67,700
2	₹19,900	12	₹78,800
3	₹21,700	13	₹1,18,500
4	₹25,500	13A	₹1,31,100
5	₹29,200	14	₹1,44,200
6	₹35,400	15	₹1,82,200
7	₹44,900	16	₹2,05,400
8	₹47,600	17	₹2,25,000
9	₹53,100	18	₹2,50,000 (fixed)
10	₹56,100

Each level has further cells above the entry pay, reached through annual increments of 3%. Use your own basic pay from your pay slip, not the entry pay, when you run the numbers.

Illustrative hike at different factors

The factors below are examples, not forecasts. The table shows what entry pay would become at 2.00 and 2.50, next to what you draw today as basic plus 60% DA. A factor of 1.60 would only turn today’s DA into basic pay, with no real gain.

Level	Basic + 60% DA today	New basic at 2.00	Real gain at 2.00	New basic at 2.50	Real gain at 2.50
1	₹28,800	₹36,000	₹7,200	₹45,000	₹16,200
4	₹40,800	₹51,000	₹10,200	₹63,750	₹22,950
7	₹71,840	₹89,800	₹17,960	₹1,12,250	₹40,410
10	₹89,760	₹1,12,200	₹22,440	₹1,40,250	₹50,490
13	₹1,89,600	₹2,37,000	₹47,400	₹2,96,250	₹1,06,650
15	₹2,91,520	₹3,64,400	₹72,880	₹4,55,500	₹1,63,980

Read the “real gain” columns, not the new basic, when a news report quotes a hike. The gain is a monthly figure before tax, before rounding to a matrix cell and before any change in allowances. If DA rises again from 1 July 2026, the break-even factor rises with it.

To see what a new basic means after tax, try the take-home salary calculator.

Allowances that could change

Allowances follow their own rules, and the 7th CPC round shows how they can move against the headline hike.

Item	Details
DA restarts.	Under the 7th CPC, dearness relief was nil on 1 January 2016 and the first instalment on the new pay was 2% from 1 July 2016. The DA built up before then had been folded into the new basic.
HRA rates can fall.	HRA was 30%, 20% and 10% of basic pay for X, Y and Z cities before the 7th CPC. The Commission cut the rates to 24%, 16% and 8%, with a floor of ₹5,400, ₹3,600 and ₹1,800. The government set the rates to rise back to 27%, 18% and 9% when DA crossed 25%, and to 30%, 20% and 10% when it crossed 50%. HRA is paid at 30%, 20% and 10% today.
DA-linked allowances get no separate raise.	Transport Allowance is fully indexed to DA, so the 7th CPC gave it no increase of its own.
Some ceilings are tied to DA.	The gratuity ceiling rose from ₹20 lakh to ₹25 lakh from 1 January 2024 because DA reached 50%. See our gratuity rules page for how gratuity is worked out.
Allowances can come later.	The Cabinet approved 7th CPC pay on 29 June 2016 but sent allowances to a separate committee. Revised allowance rates took effect only from 1 July 2017.

The 8th CPC’s terms of reference ask it to review existing allowances and rationalise them. Which ones survive, and at what rates, is not known.

Arrears: how they would be paid

Arrears arise when the effective date comes before the date revised pay reaches your pay slip. The 7th CPC shows the sequence:

The Commission submitted its report in November 2015.
The Cabinet approved it on 29 June 2016, with effect from 1 January 2016.
Arrears of pay and pension were paid within 2016-17. In earlier rounds, part of the arrears was paid in the next financial year.

The Cabinet noted that employees had waited 19 months after the due date under the 5th CPC and 32 months under the 6th. For the 8th CPC, neither the effective date nor the payment method has been announced.

You can estimate arrears once revised pay is notified. Take the monthly difference between your revised pay and allowances and what you were actually paid. Then multiply by the number of months since the effective date. At a factor of 2.00, a Level 1 employee on entry pay would gain about ₹7,200 a month, or ₹86,400 over 12 months, before tax.

Arrears are taxed as salary in the year you receive them. Relief for salary arrears sits in Section 89 of the Income-tax Act, 1961, which becomes Section 157 in the Income-tax Act, 2025. Check the income tax slabs for your rate, and ask a tax professional if a large arrears payment pushes you into a higher slab.

Frequently asked questions

When will the 8th Pay Commission salary come?

No date has been fixed. The report is due within 18 months of 3 November 2025, and revised pay can be paid only after the government accepts it.

Is there an official 8th Pay Commission salary list?

No. Level-wise salary lists circulating online are estimates based on assumed fitment factors.

How much will the salary increase be?

Nobody knows yet. Compare any projected basic pay with your current basic plus 60% DA; only the difference is a real increase.

Will the 8th CPC use the same pay matrix?

That is for the Commission to decide. Its terms of reference ask it to work out a new pay structure and review allowances.

Will DA become zero after the 8th Pay Commission?

Nothing has been announced. After the 7th CPC, DA built up until then was absorbed into the new basic pay and the first instalment on revised pay was 2% from 1 July 2016.

Will pensioners get the same hike?

In 2016, pensions were revised with the same 2.57 factor and arrears were paid in 2016-17. How the 8th CPC will revise pensions is not yet known.

Sources

Resolution constituting the 8th CPC and terms of reference — Department of Expenditure (checked 16 Sep 2026)
Cabinet approves terms of reference of 8th CPC — PIB (checked 16 Sep 2026)
Report of the Seventh Central Pay Commission (Table 5 pay matrix, para 5.1.27) — Department of Expenditure (checked 16 Sep 2026)
Cabinet approves implementation of 7th CPC recommendations — PIB, 29 June 2016 (checked 16 Sep 2026)
Cabinet approves recommendations of the 7th CPC on allowances — PIB, 28 June 2017 (checked 16 Sep 2026)
DA and DR instalment from 1 January 2026 — PIB (checked 16 Sep 2026)
Gratuity ceiling raised to ₹25 lakh on DA reaching 50% — PIB, 1 June 2024 (checked 16 Sep 2026)
Dearness Relief rates under the 7th CPC — Pensioners’ Portal (checked 16 Sep 2026)
Rajya Sabha unstarred question 1175 on 8th CPC fiscal impact — StaffNews (checked 16 Sep 2026)
Section mapping, Income-tax Act 1961 to 2025 — ICAI publication (checked 16 Sep 2026)