Salary by pay level

Salary at a 7th Central Pay Commission pay level is the entry basic pay printed for that level in the pay matrix, plus dearness allowance at 60% of basic and house rent allowance at 30%, 20% or 10% of basic by city class. At Level 1 that is Rs. 18,000 of basic and an approximate gross of Rs. 34,200 in an X-class city. At Level 10, the entry grade for directly recruited Group A officers, it is Rs. 56,100 of basic and about Rs. 1,06,590. At Level 18 it is the fixed Rs. 2,50,000 and about Rs. 4,75,000.

The 18 levels are printed across 19 columns of the pay matrix, because Level 13A sits between Levels 13 and 14. They were notified as Part A of the Schedule to the Central Civil Services (Revised Pay) Rules, 2016, gazetted as G.S.R. 721(E) on 25 July 2016 with effect from 1 January 2016, and they are what governs central civilian pay today. A level is a column, not a single number: Level 7 opens at Rs. 44,900 and runs down 40 printed cells to Rs. 1,42,400.

Two things are outside the gross shown in the main table. Transport allowance is a flat amount fixed by a band of levels rather than a percentage of basic, so it does not scale with the level and is dealt with in its own section below. And the gross is before deductions: the National Pension System contribution of 10% of basic plus dearness allowance, the Central Government Health Scheme contribution, the group insurance subscription, and income tax.

The sections that follow give the salary at every level, the top cell and the number of stages in each, which posts sit where, the group classification each level carries, the transport allowance band, the deductions, the effect of a Y or Z city, the old grade pay each level replaced, and the pension a level produces.

Salary at each level

Entry basic pay runs from Rs. 18,000 at Level 1 to Rs. 2,50,000 at Level 18, and the approximate monthly gross in an X-class city from about Rs. 34,200 to Rs. 4,75,000. The table gives every level.

Each row uses the entry cell of the level, an X-class city, and dearness allowance at 60%, notified by Department of Expenditure Office Memorandum No. 1/1(i)/2026-E.II(B) dated 22 April 2026 with effect from 1 January 2026. House rent allowance is at the X-class rate of 30% under OM No. 2/5/2017-E.II(B) dated 7 July 2017. Both columns are computed from the live rate in the site data, so when dearness allowance moves at the next revision the dearness allowance and gross columns move with it.

Two adjustments turn a table row into an actual salary. Basic pay is higher than the entry cell for anyone who has earned annual increments in the level, and house rent allowance is 20% or 10% rather than 30% outside an X-class city. The “In-hand” link on each row opens the 7th CPC salary calculator prefilled to that level, which takes the exact cell, city and deductions and computes the net after income tax.

Entry cell, top cell and stages

A pay level is a column of cells, and the top cell is about 3.2 times the entry cell at Levels 1 to 10 but only 1.09 times at Level 16. Level 1 opens at Rs. 18,000 and ends at Rs. 56,900; Level 7 opens at Rs. 44,900 and ends at Rs. 1,42,400; Level 16 opens at Rs. 2,05,400 and ends at Rs. 2,24,400 after three increments.

The columns shorten as they rise. Levels 1 to 10 each carry 40 stages, Level 11 carries 39, Level 12 carries 34, Level 13 carries 20, Level 13A carries 18, Level 14 carries 15, Level 15 carries 8 and Level 16 carries 4. Levels 17 and 18 are single fixed cells of Rs. 2,25,000 and Rs. 2,50,000, drawn respectively by the apex scale and by the Cabinet Secretary, and neither carries an annual increment. An officer promoted into Level 17 draws the same basic pay on the day of retirement as on the day of promotion.

Nobody reaches the bottom of a long column. Forty stages means 39 annual increments, and an employee recruited to Level 1 at 25 and retiring at 60 has 35 years of service in which promotion, financial upgradation or both will normally have moved them out of the level long before stage 40. The long columns exist so that an employee who is never promoted still has somewhere to go each year.

Each cell below the entry cell is 3% higher than the one above it, rounded up to the next multiple of Rs. 100. That arithmetic built the columns; the rules themselves state no percentage. Rule 9 of the CCS (Revised Pay) Rules, 2016 grants the annual increment as a movement of one cell down the column, and Rule 10 only fixes the date on which it falls.

Level 13A, and what the 2017 amendment actually changed

Level 13A was in the matrix from the outset, and the column the government amended in 2017 was Level 13. Level 13A is printed in Table 5 of the 7th Central Pay Commission report submitted on 19 November 2015 and in Part A of the Schedule as first notified by G.S.R. 721(E) on 25 July 2016, carrying former grade pay Rs. 8,900, an entry cell of Rs. 1,31,100 and 18 stages. No amendment created it.

What the Central Civil Services (Revised Pay) (Amendment) Rules, 2017, G.S.R. 592(E) dated 15 June 2017, did was substitute the column for Level 13, raising its entry cell from Rs. 1,18,500 to Rs. 1,23,100 and giving it 20 stages in place of 21. The belief that Level 13A appeared in 2017 comes from the defence pay matrix, where the government did modify the Commission’s recommendation for Level 13A, the Brigadier level.

Posts and group classification by level

A post at Levels 10 to 18 is Group A, at Levels 6 to 9 is Group B, and at Levels 1 to 5 is Group C. That is Department of Personnel and Training notification S.O. 3964(E) dated 9 August 2018, made under the proviso to Article 309 of the Constitution read with Rule 6 of the CCS (Classification, Control and Appeal) Rules, 1965, superseding S.O. 3570(E) dated 9 November 2017. Classification runs purely on the pay level and on nothing else. Group D was abolished after the 6th CPC and its posts were reclassified as Group C, which is why multi-tasking staff at Level 1 are Group C.

The level of a post is fixed by its recruitment rules, so a level carries a grade rather than a job title. Representative posts:

The same level holds very different titles across departments, because the level reflects grade and pay while the title reflects function. A recruitment notice that states a pay level has therefore already stated the pay: the level fixes the basic, and the basic fixes the dearness allowance and house rent allowance computed on it. The central government jobs hub sets out how posts, levels and recruitment fit together.

What the gross figure covers

The gross in the main table is three components and no more: entry basic pay, dearness allowance at 60% of that basic, and house rent allowance at the X-class rate of 30% of basic. These are the three that are identical for every employee at a given level and cell in a given city, which is what makes a level-wise table possible at all.

House rent allowance carries a floor of Rs. 5,400, Rs. 3,600 and Rs. 1,800 a month for X, Y and Z cities under OM No. 2/5/2017-E.II(B) dated 7 July 2017, the classes being fixed by the city classification for HRA. The floor never binds on the matrix, because the lowest basic pay in it is Rs. 18,000 and 30% of Rs. 18,000 is exactly Rs. 5,400. It was written for employees whose pay is fixed below the matrix floor, not for the levels themselves.

Excluded from the gross are transport allowance, every post-specific allowance, and all deductions. Post-specific allowances are the reason two employees at the same level and cell in the same city can draw materially different pay: the Nursing Allowance of Rs. 9,000 a month at Level 7, risk and hardship allowance in the field forces, the special duty allowance in the north-eastern region, and the running allowance of railway running staff all attach to the post, not to the level. The allowances for central government employees article lists the full set.

Transport allowance by level

Transport allowance is a flat monthly amount fixed by a band of levels, not a percentage of basic pay, and dearness allowance at 60% is paid on top of it. Under Department of Expenditure OM No. 21/5/2017-E.II(B) dated 7 July 2017:

At dearness allowance of 60%, the Rs. 7,200 band pays Rs. 11,520 a month, the Rs. 3,600 band pays Rs. 5,760, the Rs. 1,800 band pays Rs. 2,880 and the Rs. 1,350 band pays Rs. 2,160.

Because the amount is flat within a band, transport allowance is a large share of pay at the bottom of the matrix and a small one at the top. At Level 3 in a higher transport-allowance city, Rs. 5,760 is 14% of the Rs. 41,230 gross. At Level 14 in the same city, Rs. 11,520 is 4.2% of the Rs. 2,73,980 gross. This is the opposite of how the basic-linked components behave, and it is why the main table stops at an approximate gross rather than folding transport allowance in. The 19 higher transport-allowance cities are not the same list as the X-class cities for house rent allowance, and they are not the eight metros of the Income-tax Act; the transport allowance article gives the list.

Deductions from the gross

Three deductions run on the pay level or the group it carries, and income tax runs on top of all of them. An employee who joined on or after 1 January 2004 contributes 10% of basic pay plus dearness allowance to the National Pension System or, on opting in, the Unified Pension Scheme, against a government contribution of 14%. An employee who joined before that date is on the Old Pension Scheme and subscribes to the General Provident Fund instead, at not less than 6% of emoluments under Rule 8 of the General Provident Fund (Central Services) Rules, 1960, at a rate the subscriber chooses.

The Central Government Health Scheme contribution runs on the level, under Ministry of Health and Family Welfare OM No. S.11011/11/2016-CGHS(P)/EHS dated 9 January 2017, effective 1 February 2017:

Ward entitlement in an empanelled hospital does not run on the level. It runs on monthly basic pay, under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare Office Memorandum dated 28 October 2022, so two employees in the same level and paying the same contribution can hold different ward entitlements once one of them has earned increments. The CGHS contribution and ward entitlement article works through both tests.

The Central Government Employees Group Insurance Scheme subscription runs on the group: Rs. 120 a month for Group A, Rs. 60 for Group B and Rs. 30 for Group C. These are the 1990 subscription rates. The 7th CPC proposed a revised scheme with higher cover and higher subscriptions, the government declined it at paragraph 9 of its decision, and the older rates continue.

A Level 7 employee at the entry cell in an X-class city that is also a higher transport-allowance city:

The three fixed deductions take Rs. 7,894, about 8.7% of the gross. Income tax is the fourth and the largest at the higher levels, and it is the reason the gap between gross and take-home widens as the level rises. The income tax for government employees article covers the slabs and the standard deduction.

Movement within a level and between levels

Basic pay rises within a level by one cell a year and rises between levels only on promotion or financial upgradation. The annual increment is granted by Rule 9 of the CCS (Revised Pay) Rules, 2016 as a movement to the next cell down the same column, and Rule 10 fixes the date at either 1 January or 1 July, each employee holding one of the two rather than the single 1 July date of the 6th CPC. Dearness allowance and house rent allowance, being percentages of basic pay, rise with the cell automatically.

Moving to a higher level is a separate event with its own fixation rule. On promotion the basic is fixed under Rule 13 at the cell in the new level that is next above the pay drawn, after one notional increment in the old level, so a promotion is worth at least one increment and usually more. Where regular promotion has not come, the Modified Assured Career Progression scheme grants three financial upgradations to the immediate next level of the matrix, at 10, 20 and 30 years of regular service or 10 years in the same level, whichever is earlier, capped at Level 15.

Two people recruited to the same Level 7 post in the same year can therefore sit at different levels and very different pay a decade later. One promoted twice may be at Level 10; one not promoted at all draws the MACP upgradation to Level 8 at ten years and continues down the Level 8 column.

Y and Z city figures

Only house rent allowance changes with the city, and it falls from 30% of basic in an X-class city to 20% in a Y-class city and 10% in a Z-class city. Basic pay and dearness allowance are identical in all three.

Level 7 at the entry cell of Rs. 44,900, with dearness allowance of Rs. 26,940, illustrates the whole effect. House rent allowance is Rs. 13,470 in an X city and the gross is about Rs. 85,310. In a Y city it is Rs. 8,980 and the gross is about Rs. 80,820. In a Z city it is Rs. 4,490 and the gross is about Rs. 76,330. The same post therefore pays roughly Rs. 9,000 a month less in the smallest towns than in the metros before transport allowance, which varies as well.

The 30%, 20% and 10% rates took effect on 1 January 2024, the date dearness allowance crossed 50%. They were not the subject of a separate rate order: the escalation was pre-authorised in OM No. 2/5/2017-E.II(B) dated 7 July 2017, which set 24%, 16% and 8% at the outset and provided for two automatic steps up as dearness allowance crossed 25% and 50%.

Grade pay to level mapping

Each 6th CPC grade pay maps to exactly one pay level, and the mapping still matters because recruitment rules and older orders describe posts by grade pay. Until 31 December 2015 basic pay was the sum of two components, a pay band and a grade pay, and it was the grade pay that identified the grade of the post. The 7th CPC collapsed the two into a single printed cell.

Grade pay Rs. 5,400 is the one that splits, because it existed in both Pay Band-2 and Pay Band-3 and maps to Level 9 and Level 10 respectively. Everything else is one to one. The entry cell of each level was built by applying an index of rationalisation to the 6th CPC entry pay of the corresponding grade, 2.57 for Levels 1 to 5, 2.62 for Levels 6 to 9, 2.67 for Levels 10 to 12, and higher indices above; the fitment factor of 2.57 is a different multiplier that moved an individual employee into the finished table and was never applied on top of the index.

Pension and gratuity from a level

For an employee on the Old Pension Scheme, pension is 50% of emoluments under Rule 44(1) of the CCS (Pension) Rules, 2021, so the pay level at retirement fixes the pension. Emoluments are the basic pay last drawn, or the average of the last ten months where that is higher. The floor is Rs. 9,000 a month and the ceiling is Rs. 1,25,000, which is half of the Level 18 cell and is reached by nobody below it.

An employee retiring from the top cell of Level 7, Rs. 1,42,400, draws a basic pension of Rs. 71,200 plus dearness relief at the same rate as dearness allowance. One retiring from the entry cell of Level 10, Rs. 56,100, draws Rs. 28,050. Retirement gratuity is a separate payment computed on basic pay plus dearness allowance and capped at Rs. 25 lakh under the Department of Pension and Pensioners’ Welfare Office Memorandum of 30 May 2024.

Employees who joined on or after 1 January 2004 are not on this formula. Under the National Pension System the outcome depends on the accumulated corpus and the annuity purchased, not on the last cell; under the Unified Pension Scheme the assured payout is 50% of the average basic pay of the last twelve months of service, which is close to but not the same as the Rule 44 figure. The pension calculation article works through all three.

Gross to take-home

Take-home is the gross of this page less four things: the pension-scheme contribution, the health scheme contribution, the group insurance subscription and income tax. At Level 7 the first three take about 8.7% of the gross. Income tax then takes a share that rises with the level, which is why take-home falls further behind gross the higher the level.

The 7th CPC salary calculator does the whole computation: it takes the level, the cell, the city class and the transport-allowance city, adds the allowances at the current dearness allowance rate, subtracts the deductions, applies the slabs, and shows the net under both the old and the new tax regime. Each row of the main table links straight into it, prefilled to that level. The take-home salary article works through the gap in prose.

Bearing on the 8th Central Pay Commission

The figures on this page are 7th CPC figures and they are the ones in force; the 8th Central Pay Commission has not reported and no revised level-wise salary exists. The Commission was constituted in November 2025 and will review the pay structure, which may mean redesigning the levels, revising the entry cell of each, or changing how many levels there are.

Any “8th CPC salary by level” chart circulating now is a projection built on an assumed fitment factor. The 8th CPC salary calculator makes that explicit by asking for the factor rather than presenting one as settled, and the 7th vs 8th Pay Commission comparison separates what is decided from what is only demanded. The commonest error is to multiply an entry cell in the table above by a rumoured factor such as 2.86 and present the result as a salary. That double counts, because dearness allowance is reset to zero at the changeover, so the new basic pay is not added to the current 60%.

Until the Commission reports and the government notifies revised rules, the levels and entry cells on this page continue to govern every central civilian salary, with dearness allowance revised twice a year on top.

Related Articles

• Pay matrix
• 7th Central Pay Commission
• CCS (Revised Pay) Rules, 2016
• Dearness allowance
• House rent allowance
• Transport allowance
• Annual increment
• Pay fixation
• Modified Assured Career Progression
• Grade pay
• Pay band
• Fitment factor
• Index of rationalisation
• Take-home salary
• Allowances for central government employees
• Risk and hardship allowance
• Special duty allowance
• Running allowance
• CGHS contribution and ward entitlement
• General Provident Fund
• National Pension System
• Unified Pension Scheme
• Old Pension Scheme
• Pension calculation
• Dearness relief
• Gratuity
• Income tax for government employees
• CCS (Classification, Control and Appeal) Rules, 1965
• Central government employees in India
• Central government jobs
• Defence pay matrix
• Cabinet Secretary pay
• Multi-tasking staff salary
• Assistant Section Officer (ASO) salary
• Section Officer (SO) salary
• Under Secretary (US) salary
• Income Tax Inspector salary
• IAS salary
• IPS salary
• Sub-Inspector salary
• Junior Engineer salary
• Staff Nurse salary
• CAPF Constable salary
• Railway Group D salary
• Loco Pilot salary
• KVS teacher salary
• NVS teacher salary
• SSC CGL salary
• SSC CGL
• SSC CHSL salary
• 7th CPC salary calculator
• 8th CPC salary calculator
• Salary by pay level calculator
• 8th Central Pay Commission
• 7th vs 8th Pay Commission

External references

• Department of Expenditure, Ministry of Finance
• Department of Expenditure, orders and circulars
• Department of Personnel and Training
• Department of Pension and Pensioners’ Welfare
• Central Government Health Scheme
• The Gazette of India