8th Pay Commission: Everything about the previous commission's pay matrix

The 8th Pay Commission, which has been recently announced by the centre, will revise the salaries of all central government employees.

Though the formation of the 8th pay commission's particulars is still ongoing, the following is how the previous 7th pay commission introduced a new pay matrix.

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The 7th pay commission replaced the 6th pay commission's grade pay system with a rationalised pay matrix, allowing anyone to understand all pay levels using just one simple chart.

The matrix helped employees to see their pay level as well as how their career can likely to progress over time.

There are two dimensions of the pay matrix:

• It has a “horizontal range” in which each level corresponds to a “functional role in the hierarchy.” A number is assigned to each level, from 1 to 18.
• It then has a “vertical range” for each level, which denotes the ‘pay progression’ within that level. This is basically the three percent financial progression of each level.

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Meanwhile, the starting point of the matrix reflects the minimum pay based on the Aykroyd formula.

“The Commission observes that the purpose of pay is to compensate the employees for work done, to motivate them to perform well. The purposes also include attracting talent to government service and also retaining them, thus avoiding the need for expensive recruitment and training for replacement.

“The new pay structure has been devised in the form of a pay matrix to provide complete transparency regarding pay progression,” noted a report of the 7th CPC.

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It added that the pay matrix was “designed keeping in view the vast opportunities that have opened up outside government over the last three decades, generating greater competition for human resources and the need to attract and retain the best available talent in government services.”