Minimum wage, the five things to know

The discussion of the bill on the minimum salary presented by the oppositions, excluding Italia Viva, is postponed to September in Parliament, but on this Friday 11 August lPrime Minister Giorgia Meloni has invited the leaders of the opposition parties to a meeting at Palazzo Chigi on the subject. The question is debated: there are different positions in the parties and calculations that confront the disadvantages and advantages of the institution of a minimum wage in Italy. The thing that brings the center-right and center-left into agreement is that wages are low in Italy, but there are different positions on how to overcome the problem.

The proposal

The oppositions, Pd, Movimento 5 Stelle, Sinistra italiana, Verdi and Azione, Italia Viva excluded, have presented a bill that calls for collective bargaining for everyone, but in the absence of this, wants to establish a mandatory minimum wage threshold of nine euros gross per hour“to protect in particular the most fragile and poorest sectors of the world of work, in which the bargaining power of trade union organizations is weaker”.

The proposal provides for the extension of the Tec, the Overall economic treatment ddefined by category contracts signed by the most representative associations, for all workers in the category. The other step is the fixation by law of the Term, the Minimum economic treatmentat 9 euros gross per hour, below which contracts cannot go down.

The positions of the parties

Beyond the unitary proposal, the parties have personal positions. The 5 Star Movement has deposited a text signed by Joseph Conte for the statutory minimum wage of 9 euros gross, with automatic indexing and fight against pirated contracts. The Democratic Party presented a bill with a threshold of 9.5 euros per hour gross of social security contributions. The draft law of the Alleanza Verdi e Sinistra proposes a minimum wage of no less than 10 euros gross. Action sets the minimum wage at 9 euros gross with also the thirteenth month installment for the calculation. Italia viva proposes to set the minimum from year to year.

In the majority Come on Italy has presented its own proposal to extend the contracts to workers who do not have one: they should be adapted to the leading national contract for the reference sector or to the average of the main collective contracts applied to similar sectors. Brothers of Italy is against setting a minimum wage by law. For the parties in government, wages that are too low must be fought with bargaining and with the cut of the tax wedge, i.e. the difference between what the employer pays and what the employee gets. Even the unions are divided: CGIL and UIL are in favor of the minimum wage, the CISL against.

The situation of the workers

INPS statistics say that in Italy there are about 4.2 million workers who do not earn 9 euros gross per hour. Istat, with data relating to 2019, the lowest peaks are in housework, hospitality (hotels and restaurants) and agriculture. It is no coincidence that they are also non-full-time and seasonal jobs. Often those who do this type of activity are poor workers even if the wage exceeds 9 euros per hour. It depends on the number of hours and days worked. They are mostly women and young people. Istat data says that young people up to the age of 34 “in almost 4 cases out of 10 are non-standard workers” and in this situation they are also 27.7% of female workers.

Istat speaks of 3 million people under 9 euros, but does not count some sectors. Reaching 9 euros gross would lead to an average increase in wages of 14.6%, 804 euros more per year for each employment relationship with expenditure for businesses increased by over 2.8 billion euros.

How many contracts

About 946 national collective agreements were registered last year. According to a research carried out by the Fondazione Studi Consultanti del Lavoro, which examined 63 of the most representative contracts, around 39 contracts have minimums above 9 euros, around 47.8%. 22 however, 18.2%, are below this threshold, fluctuating between 8 and 8.9 euros and finally, only 1% have a contract with a salary of less than 8 euros. Those between 8 and 9 euros are the contracts of cleaners, social-health cooperatives, workers with multi-service contracts and textiles.

The doubts

If you need to starting from the category contracts signed by the most representative associations, we need to determine what these are. And a law would be needed to establish where to apply the 9 euro threshold and where to use already existing forms connected to bargaining such as minimum wages. Another problem lies in the territorial differences Italian companies: 9 euros could be too much for the South, but too little for the industries of the North.