The 8th pay commission is conducting multiple state visits and meetings with employee representative groups, unions and stakeholders to gather views ahead of its own recommendations on pay hikes, allowances, salary structure, and other factors.
Constituted every 10 years, the panel is expected to make significant decisions impacting salaries of central government employees and pensioners, including railways and defence staff, by mid-2027.
Beneficiaries are the nearly 50 lakh central government employees, including defence personnel, and around 65 lakh retired central government pensioners, including defence retirees, who will be impacted by the decisions.
Chaired by former Supreme Court Justice Ranjana Prakash Desai, the 8th CPC also 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.
8th CPC meeting dates: Check full list of state visits
- Uttar Pradesh: The meeting in Lucknow is scheduled from 22-23 June (Monday and Tuesday), and stakeholders have till 10 June to make appointments.
- Odisha: The 8th CPC will visit Bhubaneswar, Odisha, from 6-7 July (Monday and Tuesday) to hold discussions with concerned stakeholders. Appointment requests must be completed by 15 June.
- West Bengal: The 8th CPC will visit Kolkata from 9-10 July (Thursday and Friday) to hold discussions with concerned stakeholders. Appointment requests must be completed by 15 June.
Pay commission invites applications for consultants
The panel in May also invited applications from candidates for full-time and part-time consultant roles on a one-year contractual basis, “to make recommendations related to emolument structure of different categories of officers, employees and on pensions”.
According to the notice, the 20 full-time and part-time vacancies are for a fixed period and require “high end services or for attending to specific and time-bound jobs of the Commission” across various experience levels and pay scales.
The term is for one-year contract or up to the tenure of the Commission, whichever is less. If required, extension beyond one year shall be subject to performance and professionalism of the consultant in the Commission, the notice added.
The notice added that the invite is open till all posts are filled, and any updates will be notified on the pay commission’s official website. Notably, there has been no such update so far.
Panel extends memorandum submission date
Further, the panel has invited suggestions and memoranda until 15 June, following the opening of formal memorandum submissions in March. This is the second extension after the process began on 5 March, with earlier deadlines on 30 April, and then 31 May.
Stakeholders include industrial and non-industrial central government employees, personnel belonging to the All India Services, Defence Forces, Union Territories; officers and employees of the Indian Audit and Accounts Department, members of the Regulatory Bodies (except the Reserve Bank of India) set up under the Acts of Parliament, officers and employees of the Supreme Court, officers and employees of the High Courts whose expenditure is borne by UTs, judicial officers of the subordinate courts in UTs, pensioners, service associations or unions, central government ministries or departments or organisations and UTs.
8th CPC discussions: Timeline, expectations of announcement
It began meetings with stakeholders in April, has other meetings scheduled in May and June, and plans to schedule more meetings in due course. To reach consensus, it gathers inputs from labour representatives and groups, ministries, pension bodies, central government organisations/institutions, employee unions/associations, and other similar stakeholders; analyses the data; and then decides on allowances, pension formula, and salary structures for the relevant employee and retiree groups.
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 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 2 to 3 years to complete. This means that hikes announced in 2027 may only be fully implemented by 2029 or 2030.
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