A-Infos (en) Italy, FAI, Umanita Nova #11-25: Wages at a standstill. Paychecks in a nosedive (ca, de, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

The recently released ILO World Wage Report 2025-26 is undoubtedly a 
useful tool, especially in a country like ours, where the workforce and 
its organizational processes enjoy ever-decreasing media attention.

In Italy, real wages are 8.7% lower than in 2008. While in some G20 
countries wages were growing, ours were losing purchasing power: this 
data would be enough to refute clichés and easy optimism about the 
economic recovery of the Bel Paese. ---- With reference only to the very 
last years, the significant decline in 2022 and 2023 (-3.3% and -3.2% 
respectively) is not in the least compensated by the slight increase 
recorded in 2024 (+2.3%). Yet the government rhetoric and the press 
close to it never miss an opportunity to transmit misleading messages. 
One wonders whether the writers of these paeans to the Government have 
ever gone shopping or paid bills, because in that case they would have 
been aware of the cost of living and the inadequacy of today's wages to 
face it.

At the end of July 2024, "Il Giornale" published an article (we could 
mention dozens) with a triumphalistic title ("Wages are growing and 
beating inflation. The gap with the rest of Europe is narrowing"[1]), 
relying on a Bocconi professor to assert that the only way to promote 
wage growth is through collective bargaining, with all due respect to 
the sterile debate on the minimum wage. In short, the only concern of 
the employers' sectors and the center-right is to avoid the minimum 
wage, the application of which would put out of play several national 
contracts signed with an hourly wage lower than a hypothetical cost 
below which it would not fall.

The ILO Report contains numerous graphs, associated with a careful study 
on how real wages have evolved globally. In general terms, advanced 
economies are seeing a decline in wages, while emerging countries have 
seen constant growth over time. This, in some ways, could point to a 
change in the balance of power on a global scale, as well as possible 
conflictual dynamics, widespread in emerging economies and little known 
and studied in our parts. But let's get back to our country. In Italy, 
for a good fifteen years, there has been low productivity, but in the 
last two years something has changed. Productivity has grown, more than 
wages, so much so that some newspapers are talking about the objective 
conditions for significantly increasing wages, also criticizing the 
current bargaining model. And it is precisely on this that we need to 
spend a few words, because if we continue to refer to the same inflation 
index, the IPCA, calculated net of the prices of imported energy goods, 
we will not get far. The IPCA, in fact, does not cover "one of the items 
that has weighed most heavily on family budgets"[2], namely the increase 
in the price of energy products. However, for a good part of the union 
the solution remains to rely on second-level bargaining, which concerns 
only large and medium-sized companies and excludes many small 
businesses, where the union is not present.

To get an idea of the bleak union picture, it is enough to read the 
statements of Daniela Fumarola, who celebrated her appointment as 
General Secretary of the Cisl by giving an interview to the daily 
newspaper la Repubblica[3], where she calls for "remaining within the 
confines of bargaining and union relations". Not only that, in her 
opinion, a law on minimum wages "would seriously risk crushing wages 
downwards". Yet it would be enough to cite important institutional 
studies to deny these words.

For example, in July 2023 there was talk of a research by the Fondazione 
Studi dei Consulenti del Lavoro, relating to 63 collective agreements 
signed by Cgil, Cisl and Uil, chosen by virtue of their 
representativeness. Well, the research revealed that, among them, «as 
many as 22, or more than a third, provide for an hourly wage below 9 
euros gross (including severance pay, thirteenth and fourteenth month's 
pay)»[4]. Therefore, Fumarola does not sleep at night at the thought of 
the reduction in wages, but forgets that his union (and not only his) 
has contributed to bringing down precisely those wages well below what 
is foreseen in the proposals for the legal minimum wage.

Even around the 5.6 million people in absolute poverty, many fine 
speeches are produced, without ever addressing a situation of social and 
economic crisis increasingly out of control. And in the meantime, not 
only large unions but also some political forces, now in opposition, 
rely on high-sounding words to occasionally touch on social issues. The 
point is that these issues cannot be addressed separately.

The report also highlights a significant difference between the wages of 
native workers and immigrant workers. The latter, compared to the 
former, receive wages that are 26.3% lower: a significant and also 
worrying gap, which can only be countered in a general discussion, such 
as to place the wage issue and the fight against all inequalities and 
discrimination at the center. Today more than ever, this overall battle 
must free itself from a dangerous illusion, vigorously relaunched by the 
Cisl and remodeled in more nuanced terms by the Cgil and Uil: that 
according to which wage erosion and the constant loss of rights can be 
curbed through collective bargaining and social dialogue. What this 
approach has led to is now clear for all to see. Years and years of 
moderate wage policies, often pushed to the point of real wage 
austerity, have brought benefits only to the employers, while the 
working class and those with medium-low incomes are faced daily with a 
sharp worsening of living conditions, not compensated by a welfare 
system that is increasingly less adequate to respond to the social needs 
of most people.

This is why it is essential not only to overturn the class enemy's point 
of view, but also to strongly doubt the late and contradictory positions 
taken. It is essential to carry forward collective practices to defend 
the purchasing power of wages and to relaunch social services, 
impoverished by years of containment of public spending. To use just one 
concept, we need to return to conflict, which has always been the main 
lever for the emancipation of exploited and oppressed people.

Emiliano Gentili, Stefano Macera, Federico Giusti

[1]Titta Ferraro, Wages grow and beat inflation. The gap with the rest 
of Europe is narrowing, July 27, 2024, 
https://www.ilgiornale.it/news/politica/i-salari-crescono-e-battono-lirrigazione-si-riduce-distanza-2351284.html.

[2]Enrico Marro, Real wages, no one worse than Italy: 8.7% of purchasing 
power lost compared to 2008 (and in Germany it rose by 15%), 25 March 
2025, 
https://www.corriere.it/economia/lavoro/25_marzo_24/salari-reali-nessuno-peggio-dell-italia-rispetto-al-2008-perso-l-8-7-del-potere-d-acquisto-e-in-germania-e-salito-del-15-8f29fe3d-5c41-4375-a665-48d02a460xlk.shtml.

[3]Rosaria Amato, Fumarola "We are autonomous but the government is 
attentive to dialogue The minimum wage impoverishes", 13 February 2024, 
«la Repubblica», 
https://www.cisl.it/notizie/attualita/siamo-autonomi-ma-il-governo-e-attento-al-dialogo-il-salario-minimo-impoverisce-la-repubblica/.

[4]Rita Querzè, Minimum Wage, the 22 contracts of Cgil, Cisl and Uil 
under 9 euros gross, 21 July 2023, 
https://www.corriere.it/economia/lavoro/23_luglio_21/salario-minimo-22-contratti-cgil-cisl-uil-sotto-9-euro-lordi-infografica-63a0b664-26fc-11ee-8ff1-5e0f92474986.shtml.

https://umanitanova.org/salari-al-palo-buste-paga-in-picchiata/
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