Outlook Business Desk
The 8th Pay Commission will begin meetings with unions, employee groups and stakeholders across states in June 2026. Discussions will focus on allowances, salary hikes, pensions and other pay-related matters before final recommendations are prepared.
The Centre forms a pay commission once every 10 years to review salaries and pensions of central government employees and retirees. Its decisions also affect railway staff, defence personnel and pensioners linked to central government departments across India.
The commission opened memorandum submissions in March 2026 and later met employee representatives in April and May to gather feedback before preparing its recommendations.
Former Supreme Court Justice Ranjana Prakash Desai is heading the commission. Former Indian Administrative Service officer Pankaj Jain is serving as Member-Secretary while Professor Pulak Ghosh, a finance expert and Economic Advisory Council member, is also part of the panel.
The commission will visit Srinagar in Jammu and Kashmir from June 1 to 4, 2026 and Ladakh on June 8. It will later travel to Lucknow on June 22 and 23 for discussions with stakeholders and employee groups.
The panel will hold meetings in Bhubaneswar on July 6 and 7, 2026. It also said separate discussions will later take place in other Uttar Pradesh cities, Vishakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh and several other states and Union Territories.
Before these visits, the commission held consultations in Delhi on May 13 and 14 with organisations linked to the Ministry of Railways and Ministry of Defence. It also met stakeholders in Hyderabad, Telangana on May 18 and 19, 2026.
Around 50 lakh central government employees and nearly 65 lakh pensioners, including retired defence personnel, are expected to be impacted by the commission’s final decisions. The recommendations will mainly cover salaries, pensions, allowances and overall pay structures.
The commission will accept memorandums till May 31, 2026 before analysing suggestions and feedback. Since it was formed on November 3, 2025, recommendations may arrive by February 2027 while full implementation could happen between 2029 and 2030.