History of Pay Commissions

  

The Pay Commission is a Central government organization in India tasked with recommending changes to the salary structure of government employees. Established in 1947, it has convened seven times, each time reviewing and making recommendations on pay and service conditions for civil and military employees. It has undergone several iterations, each bringing significant changes to compensation, benefits, and conditions of service, adapting to evolving economic and administrative contexts. The recommendations of these commissions have had profound impacts on the pay and pensions of both civilian and military employees, often reflecting the need for equity and recognition of service.

Historically, armed forces pay and pensions were lower than civilians and thus each pay commission progressively aimed to minimize this disparity. Similarly, different formulas were used for civilian and armed forces pensions. Over the years, changes were made to improve pension structures through various CPCs. Efforts are ongoing to align military pension with civilian counterpart benefits.

 

First Pay Commission

• Established in 1946 to examine pay for civilian employees
• Report submitted in May 1947 under Chairman Srinivasa Varadachariar
• The recommendations for Armed Forces emoluments were made by a separate Departmental Committee
• Also, the pensionary benefits were evaluated by a separate committee called "Armed Forces Pension Revision Committee”

Second Pay Commission

• Set up in 1957 and was chaired by Jagannath Das
• It had a total financial impact of ₹39.6 crore
• Departmental Committee, including service representatives recommended the emoluments for Armed Forces
• Introduced the concept of Dearness Allowance (DA) and revised pay scales

Third Pay Commission

• It was set up in 1970 and was the first commission to review both civilian and armed forces’ pay structures
• Recommended a significant increase in salaries and allowances
• Liberalized family pension was introduced for war widows and their children
• Notable lack of bureaucratic interference in services’ proposal

Fourth Pay Commission

• Set up in 1983 and was chaired by P.N. Singhal
• Introduced the concept of 'Rank Pay' for armed forces
• The total cost to the exchequer was ₹ 1282 crore

 

Fifth Pay Commission

• Set up in 1994 and was chaired by Justice S. Ratnavel Pandian
• Recommended substantial salary hikes and allowances for government employees
• Focused on government workforce reduction by almost 30% and pension structure, however the recommendations were not implemented

Sixth Pay Commission

• It was commissioned in year 2006 and submitted its report in 2008
• The commission was chaired by Justice BN Srikrishna
• One of the key demands was to make salaries comparable with the private sector where the emoluments were increasing due to globalization of Indian economy
• Established to address ambiguities in pay scales; reduced the number of pay scales and concept of pay bands was introduced
• It also recommended removal of Group D cadre

Seventh Pay Commission

• It was constituted in September 2013 and was headed by Justice AK Mathur
• Recommended 23.55% hike in pay and allowances effective from January 2016
• Addressed concerns regarding armed forces' hierarchy and pay scales
• Increased the minimum pay from Rs. 7000 to Rs. 18000
• Fitment factor was decided as 2.57 that was used to calculate revised salaries across all bands
• Rise in maximum limit of borrowing for a new house construction or purchase to Rs 25 lakh from Rs 7.50 lakh earlier
• This was the fastest implementation of recommendations and took just 6 months, compared to 19 months in 6^th CPC