The Union Cabinet on Tuesday approved the Terms of Reference of 8th Central Pay Commission. The 8th Central Pay Commission will be a temporary body. The Commission will comprise of one Chairperson; One Member (Part Time) and one Member-Secretary. It will make its recommendations within 18 months of the date of its constitution. It may consider if necessary sending interim reports on any of the matters as and when the recommendations are finalized. The recommendations of the Commission to be headed by former Supreme Court judge Ranjana Prakash Desi are likely to be effective from January 1 2026. The commission will submit its report in 18 months and interim reports as and when they are finalised. Nonetheless the employees of the central government and pensioners may experience a wait of approximately three years to benefit from it. The committee has been tasked with completing its work in a period of 18 months which would mean that the 8th Pay Commission is expected to submit its report to the government around April 2027. According to Financial Express government employees wanting to see the process move along as quickly as possible will need to exercise patience. Drawing from the experience of the last two pay commissions the entire process could take up to 2028. The implementation of the 6th Pay Commission was publicly announced in July 2006 under the UPA-1 government. The commission was formally constituted in October 2006 with its Terms of Reference approved at that time. The commission submitted its report in March of 2008 after 18 months. Approximately eight months later the Cabinet of UPA-1 government approved the 6th Pay Commission report in August of 2008. Thus from ToR approval to Cabinet approval it took approximately 22 months to implement the panel’s recommendations. The recommendation was made effective from January 1 2006. The announcement of the 7th Pay Commission was made in September 2013 during the UPA-2 regime. Approximately five months later the Union Cabinet approved the formation of the panel and its Terms of Reference (ToR) in February 2014. The 7th Pay Commission submitted its report in November 2015 which took approximately 18 months. The NDA government led by Narendra Modi implemented the recommendations in June 2016. In total from the approval of the ToR until the recommendations were implemented it took nearly 28 months. Again the recommendations were deemed effective from 1 January 2016.