8th Pay Commission Family Unit: During a recent meeting of the National Council (Staff Side) under the Joint Consultative Machinery, also known as NC-JCM, a new idea was discussed that could affect how government salaries are calculated in the future. The suggestion was to increase the number of family members considered in wage calculations from three units to five units.
If the government accepts this idea, it may lead to a bigger salary revision under the upcoming 8th Pay Commission. Experts say that in such a case the fitment factor, which is used to revise basic salaries, could go above 3. This would mean a large increase in the basic pay of central government employees.
8th Pay Commission: Big Salary Boost Possible Even With Lower Fitment
Many central government workers and pensioner groups have supported this proposal. According to them, increasing the family unit size could change the fitment factor, which plays a big role in deciding how much salary will rise after the pay commission recommendations are applied.
Why Employee groups want more Family Units?
The idea of using three family units for wage calculations is not new. It was first introduced in the 15th Indian Labour Conference held in 1957. At that time experts discussed how wages should be fixed based on basic needs.
Under this system a family unit normally includes the husband, wife, and two children. These members are used as a standard when calculating basic wages in government pay commissions.
However employee organisations now say that this old system does not reflect the realities of modern families. They argue that today many households have different responsibilities and the earlier model no longer matches current social conditions.
C Srikumar, secretary general of the All India Defence Employees’ Federation (AIDEF) pointed to the law called the Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens Act, 2007. This law says that children have a legal duty to take care of their parents. Because of this, employee unions want parents to also be counted as part of the family units when salaries are calculated.
Manjeet Singh Patel, National President of the All India NPS Employees Federation, also shared a similar view. He said that many families today live in nuclear setups where elderly parents often depend on their children for support. Because of this situation employee groups believe parents should be included in the calculation of family units.
Possible Impact on Salaries
According to Patel, increasing the number of family units from three to five could have a big effect on salary revisions. He told the Economic Times that basic pay may rise by about 66% if the proposal is accepted.
This increase would come from adding two more family units to the calculation system. Each family unit is estimated to add around 33.33% to the wage calculation. When two extra units are included, the total increase could reach about 66%.
Scenario 1:
Here, calculations assume no change in family units and only consider DA increases and annual increments. If an employee’s basic salary is Rs 78,800, current DA is 58%, annual increments are 12% and estimated DA rise is 12%, then fitment factor calculation will be 1 (basic pay) + 0.66 (DA) + 0.12 (annual increment) = 1.76.
8th Pay Comission: Centre Says Old Pensioners Won’t Be Left Out
In this case, an estimated revised basic salary could be Rs 1,38,688.
Scenario 2:
In this, family units increase from 3 to 5. This means that the additional family unit factor of 0.66 gets added to the base fitment factor in the first scenario.
That means, the total fitment factor will be 1.76 + 0.66 = 2.42.
Here, the estimated revised basic salary would be 78,800 x 2.42 = Rs 1,90,676
Scenario 3:
During the 7th Pay Commission, the government granted a growth factor of 15%. Assuming the earlier growth level, the numbers change significantly.
In this case, the calculation steps include:
1. Rs 78,800 basic pay at 1.76 fitment factor= Rs 1,38,688
2. Per family unit (for three units) = Rs 46,230
3. Revised salary for five family units is 5 X Rs 46,230 = Rs 2,31,150
4. Derived fitment factor = 2.94
An addition of 15% growth factor takes it to – 2.94 + 0.15 = 3.09
This means the estimated revised salary would be 78,800 x 3.09 = Rs 2,43,492.
