8th Pay Commission: July 2027 Or January 2028? When To Expect Big Salary Overhaul

With the Union Cabinet issuing its nod for the Terms of Reference for the 8th Pay Commission, the question now shifts to when the salaries and pensions be finally revised.

The panel, to be headed by former Supreme Court judge Ranjana Prakash Desai, has been assigned the task of proposing a revised pay structure, retirement benefits and other service conditions for central government employees and pensioners. It is expected to submit its recommendations within 18 months.

Thus, the commission is likely to submit its report by April 2027.

The question in the minds of government employees is: when will the recommendations be implemented?

On the one hand, the government could approve the recommendations in July 2027. This is because the government usually takes a minimum of three to six months to approve the recommendations. So, July 2027 is the earliest possible timeline for implementing the recommendations.

On the other hand, it is also possible that the implementation could be stretched to January 2028. This is based on the duration the government has taken in the past to implement the recommendations.

Let us take a look at how long it took to implement the proposals of the 6th and 7th Pay Commissions.

The formation of the 6th Pay Commission was first announced in July 2006, under the UPA-1 government. The commission was formally established and its ToR were approved in October 2006. After 18 months, it submitted its report in March 2008. Subsequently, approximately eight months after the report was handed in, the UPA Cabinet approved its recommendations in August 2008.

It took roughly 22 months from the approval of the ToR until the Union Cabinet gave its final endorsement for implementing the 6th Pay Commission’s recommendations. However, these changes were applied retrospectively, effective from Jan. 1, 2006.

The 7th Central Pay Commission was announced during the UPA-2 government in September 2013. The panel was officially formed and its ToR approved by the Union Cabinet around five months later, in February 2014. 

After 18 months of deliberations, the commission submitted its report in November 2015. The recommendations were subsequently ratified by the NDA government under Prime Minister Narendra Modi in June 2016.

The implementation of the 7th Pay Commission’s recommendations took around 28 months from the approval of the ToR until the final government nod. Notably, these changes were applied retrospectively from Jan. 1, 2016.

Therefore, since the ToR of the 8th Pay Commission has been approved in October 2025, the earliest possible date for its implementation could be July 2027. However, it is also possible that its implementation will be pushed to January 2028.