To the minimum wage by law, the CGIA invites the application of second level bargaining, the cut of Irpef and the renewal of contracts within the deadline
As in many European countries, territorial wage differences are also important in Italy. In 2021, for example, the average annual gross salary of Italian employees employed in the private sector in the Metropolitan City of Milan was 31.202 euros, in Palermo, however, 16.349 euros. Practically in the economic capital of the country a hypothetical average employee two years ago earned 90 percent more than a colleague employed in the Sicilian regional capital. However, if the comparison is made with the Calabrian province of Vibo Valentia, last in the country for average annual gross salary (11.823 euros), the salary of the Milanese employee was even 164 percent higher. The average Italian salary, however, amounted to 21.868 euros.
The aspects that emerged from the processing carried out by the CGIA Research Office on INPS data re-propose an old question: the salary imbalances present between the different areas of our country, such as, for example, between North and South, but also between urban areas and rural ones. An issue that the social partners attempted to resolve, after the abolition of the so-called wage cages in the early 70s, through the use of the national collective labor agreement (CCNL). The application, however, only partially produced the desired effects. Wage inequalities between geographical areas have remained because in the private sector multinationals, utilities, medium-large companies, financial/insurance/banking companies which - tend to pay their employees much higher salaries than average - are mainly located in Northern metropolitan areas. The types of companies just mentioned, in fact, have a very high share of staff with professional qualifications out of the total (managers, executives, middle managers, technicians, etc.), with high levels of education who must be paid a significant salary. Finally, it should not be forgotten that irregular work is widespread especially in the South and this social and economic scourge has always caused a reduction in contractual wages in the sectors (agriculture, personal services, commerce, etc.), located in the areas affected by this phenomenon.
However, if instead of comparing the average data between different geographical areas we do it between workers in the same sector, the territorial differences are reduced and on average are even smaller than those present in other European countries.
Therefore, we can say that in Italy wage inequalities at a geographical level are important, but, thanks to a predominant use of centralized bargaining, we have smaller differentials compared to other countries. On the other hand, the limited diffusion of decentralized bargaining in Italy - an institution, for example, which is very widespread in Germany - does not allow real wages to remain linked to the trend of inflation, the cost of housing and local productivity levels, making us discount also very important average salary gaps with other countries.
• Better decentralized minimum wage negotiation
As the CNEL also had the opportunity to point out, the problem of poor workers does not appear to be attributable to too low minimum wage rates, but to the fact that these people work a very limited number of days during the year. Therefore, rather than establishing a minimum wage by law, the abuse of some short-time contracts should be combated. Furthermore, the CGIA Research Office makes it known that to raise the salaries of employees, especially those with lower professional qualifications, it would be necessary to continue cutting Irpef and spread decentralized bargaining more widely. Having one of the percentages relating to the number of workers covered by national collective bargaining among the highest at European level (95 percent of the total number of employees), we should "push" to further spread second-level bargaining, rewarding, in particular way, the decontribution and the achievement of productivity objectives, also by resorting to direct agreements between entrepreneurs and their employees. By doing so, we would give an answer above all to the workers of the North and in particular of the more urbanized areas of the country who, following the inflation boom, in the last two years have suffered, much more than others, a frightening loss of the power of 'purchase.
• Second level employment contracts: only 3,3 million employees involved (20% of the total)
By June 15th, there were 10.568 active second level contracts at the Ministry of Labor, of which 9.532 were of a corporate nature and 1.036 were territorial. In relation to company size, 43 percent had been signed in companies with fewer than 50 employees, 41 percent in those with more than 100 and 16 percent in those with a number of employees between 50 and 99. Of the 10.568 active contracts, 72 percent were signed in the North, 18 percent in the Center and 10 percent in the South. Lombardy (3.218), Emilia Romagna (1.362) and Veneto (1.081) are the regions with the higher number.
At a national level, 3,3 million employees are involved (approximately 20 percent of the national total), of which 2,1 from company contracts and 1,1 from territorial contracts.
• One in two private employees has an expired CCNL
In addition to extending the application of decentralized bargaining, the CGIA Research Office believes that to burden paychecks it would be necessary to respect the deadlines for renewing employment contracts. Excluding the agricultural sector, domestic work and some technical issues, as of 1 September 54 percent of private sector employees had their CCNL expired. We are talking about almost 7,5 million employees out of a total of almost 14 million. It is very difficult to identify the causes that do not allow the renewal to be signed by the deadline set by the contract, however it is likely to be believed that in many cases this is attributable to the difficulty encountered by the social partners in finding an agreement on economic increases that is suitable for both the North than in the South. In short, since second level bargaining is not sufficiently developed - which by its nature is capable of rewarding corporate/territorial productivity and defining countermeasures to combat inflation which, as we know, has different rates between regions and regions and between central and peripheral areas - it is increasingly difficult to reach an agreement on sector wage increases within the deadline set for a contract that works from Sondrio to Ragusa.
• Heavier paychecks in Milan and along the Via Emilia
From the provincial analysis of the average gross salaries paid to private sector employees, it emerges that, in 2021, Milan was the reality with the highest salaries: 31.202 euros. Parma follows with 25.912 euros, Bologna with 25.797 euros, Modena with 25.722 euros and Reggio Emilia with 25.566 euros. In all these Emilian realities, the strong concentration of sectors with high productivity and high added value - such as the production of luxury cars, mechanics, automotive, mechatronics, biomedical and agri-food - has "guaranteed" the workers of these territories very heavy paychecks. The "poorest" employees, however, were in Nuoro where they received an average gross annual salary of 13.338 euros, in Cosenza with 13.141 euros and in Trapani with 13.137 euros. Finally, the most "unlucky" ones worked in Vibo Valentia where in a year of work they only brought home 11.823 euros.