7th Pay Commission: Pay Gap Problem

7th Pay Commission: Pay Gap Problem

New Delhi: The cabinet approved June last year the long-awaited 7th Pay Commission recommendations for the 4.8 million central government employees and 5.2 million pensioners.

FM Arun Jaitley had assured unions leaders of central government employees, a day after the cabinet cleared 7th Pay Commission award, that the pay gap should be minimized.

The cabinet decided to go for ditto, the 7th pay commission recommendations for an average 14.27 per cent hike in basic pay effective from January 1, 2016, bypassing recommendations of the government formed a 13 member secretary-level Empowered Committee headed by Cabinet Secretary P K Sinha for an average 30 per cent hike in basic pay.

Of the approved 18 pay matrices according to notification, pay in the highest pay matrix (Level-18) meant for Cabinet secretary to the Union government is Rs 2,50,000 (fixed), which was Rs 90,000 (fixed) in the immediate past under 6th pay commission recommendation. The rate of increase is 178%.

The pay matrix in the lowest grade (Level-1) is Rs 18,000 which was Rs 7,000 under 6th pay commission recommendation. The rate of increase is 157%.

The ratio of pay between the highest declared pay matrix (Level-18) and the lowest grade (Level -1) in the 7th Pay Commission recommendations is 1:13.9, which was 1:12 in the 6th pay scale.

All pay commissions except 7th Pay Commission made up pay gap between lower paid employees and top officers from second Pay Commission 1:41 ratio to Sixth pay commission 1:12.

The first pay commission was recommended pay of the top bureaucrats 41 times higher than the government employees at the bottom. The top bureaucrats were given salary Rs 2,263 while the lowest earning employees got Rs 55.

Subsequent pay commissions reduced the ratio of pay between lowest earning employees and top bureaucrats from 1:41 in 1947 to about 1:12 in 2006.

It may be mentioned that the low paid employees are demanding for a long time that the pay ratio between the highest and the lowest grades should be minimized. They have also demanded that Rs 25,000 should be the minimum pay in the new pay scale and the fitment factor will be higher than the 2.57 times approved by the government based on the pay commission recommendations.

Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had assured unions leaders of central government employees in the Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh’s house, a day after the cabinet cleared 7th Pay Commission award, that the pay gap should be minimized.

However, the government has now ruled out for minimizing the issue of Pay gap under the 7th Pay Commission.

TST