About Pay Level 18
Level 18 corresponds to Cabinet Secretary cadre posts in the Central Government. Recruitment is typically through SSC, UPSC, or departmental promotion depending on the ministry. Employees enter at the first cell of the level and progress through annual increments of 3%.
Expected 8th CPC salary for Level 18
Under the widely-projected fitment factor of 2.86x, an entry-cell Level 18 employee's basic pay is expected to rise from ₹2,50,000 to approximately ₹7,15,000. Once DA (rebased to 0% initially), HRA and TA are added on top, the gross salary at implementation is typically 25–35% higher than the pre-revision figure.