New Delhi: The Finance Ministry officials involved with the process of higher minimum pay told The Sen Times on condition of anonymity that the government has decided that ‘no arrears on higher minimum pay Rs 21,000 from Rs 18,000 will be paid to central government employees.
FM Arun Jaitley is very pleased to hike the minimum pay Rs 21,000.

They said, “Finance Minister Arun Jaitley is very pleased to hike the minimum pay Rs 21,000 with raising fitment factor 3.00 times from 2.57 times, will be paid from January next year.”

“It’s an important payment for the financial impact to central government employees but no arrears on higher minimum pay will be given to employees and the Finance Minister Arun Jaitley will place it before the Cabinet in the month of January next year.”

The lowest earning central government employees now get Rs 18,000 per month on the recommendations of the 7th Pay Commission from Rs 7,000 under 6th pay commission recommendation, while the maximum pay from Rs 80,000 to Rs 2.25 lakh per month and Rs 2.5 lakh for the cabinet secretary—the senior-most civil servant and a fitment factor of 2.57 has been proposed to apply uniformly for all employees.

The central government employees unions’ leaders argue that the current minimum pay Rs 18,000 is not enough to live on. There’s also say that raising it might also be beneficial for closing the pay gap, The pay gap between the highest maximum pay and the lowest minimum pay in the 7th Pay Commission recommendations is 1:14, 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 pay gap between lowest earning employees and top bureaucrats from 1:41 in 1947 to about 1:12 in 2006.

In the view of pay gap, the central government employees unions are demanding for hiking minimum pay Rs 18,000 to Rs 26,000 and the and asked to raising fitment factor 3.68 times from 2.57 times.

So, the government formed National Anomaly Committee headed by Secretary, Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) in September, 2016 to look into pay anomalies arising out of the implementation of the 7th Pay Commission’s recommendations.

“The National Anomaly Committee is likely to give its nod to minimum pay Rs 21,000 with raising fitment factor 3.00 times from 2.57 times at the behest of the Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and it will be implemented from January, 2018 but no arrears will be paid from January, 2016,” the officials involved with the process added.