Fair Wages And Pay Transparency In Italy: Key Changes

The Fair Wages Decree-Law No. 62 of April 20, 2026 introduced several changes regarding “fair wages.” The government’s goal is to ensure that employees receive economic compensation which is appropriate to the quantity and quality of the work performed, giving effect to the constitutional provision contained in Article 36. Below are the key elements of the new law:

• Decree-Law No. 62/2026 does not introduce a statutory minimum wage.
• The “fair wage” is helped to define by the overall economic compensation set out in the national collective bargaining agreements (CCNL) signed by the majority of representative organizations at the national level.
• Different criteria apply depending on the sector, the production category, the employer’s main activity, size, and legal form.
• CCNLs other than the “representative” ones may not provide an overall economic compensation lower than the applicable benchmark.
• For sectors not covered by collective bargaining, reference must be made to the CCNL closest to the nature of the activity carried out.

In Depth

As already noted, the decree does not introduce a statutory minimum wage but rather aims to combat wage dumping by discouraging the application of marginal or weakly representative collective agreements that provide lower economic compensation than the CCNLs most widespread and established in the relevant sector. The stated objective is to strengthen the role of “leading” collective bargaining as the benchmark for identifying the so-called “fair wage.”

Alongside this approach, however, several interpretive issues are already emerging. The decree does not clarify the objective criteria for identifying the reference CCNL, nor does it clearly define how to measure the representativeness of the trade union organizations called upon to sign the “benchmark” agreement. Additional uncertainty also arises: there is no statutory definition of “overall economic compensation,” a concept central to the entire reform. In the absence of universally applicable legislative guidelines, there is a risk of leaving room for differing interpretations among various collective agreements, even within the same production sector.

Pay transparency in hiring

Legislative Decree No. 96 of May 7, 2026 implements Directive (EU) 2023/970 on pay transparency. The main provisions, in force from June 7, 2026, are as follows.

• Candidates will have the right to know (either in advertisement or call for applications), the starting salary or the salary range for the open position. It will therefore be important to review job postings carefully.
• Employers will be prohibited from asking candidates about the remuneration received in current or previous employment relationships.
• Selection procedures must be gender-neutral.

Employees’ right to information

• Employees may request information on average pay levels, broken down by gender of employees performing the same work or work of equal value. It is therefore important to inform employees of this right.
• The employer must respond in writing within two months of the request.
• Clauses preventing employees from disclosing their pay will be prohibited.

Gender pay gap reporting differentiated by company size

• Employers with at least 100 employees will be subject to reporting obligations on pay gaps.
• For companies with at least 250 employees and for those with 150 to 249 employees, the first data collection is due by June 7, 2027.
• For employers with 100 to 149 employees, the first data collection is due by June 7, 2031.

Joint pay assessment

• If an average gender pay gap of at least 5% emerges within a category of employees, which is not justified by objective criteria and is not corrected within six months, the employer must carry out a joint assessment of that gap with employees’ representatives.

Protections and sanctions

• Employees may take legal action to protect their rights and, in cases of discrimination, the protections under the Equal Opportunities Code will apply.

The lack of clarity arising from the wording of Legislative Decree No. 96/2026 gives rise to several considerations. First, it is not clear whether the contractual “superminimo” (individual pay supplement above the contractual minimum) must be included in what the implementing legislation refers to as the “pay level.” While the Directive clearly includes this pay component, the Legislative Decree in question appears to exclude it when it is based on “objective individual criteria.” Furthermore, to determine whether two jobs are of “equal value,” the Legislative Decree refers exclusively to the contractual job classification provided by the CCNLs applied in the relevant sector, whereas for the purposes of the Directive, contractual classification alone is not sufficient and the substance of the activities performed must be taken into account.

That said, although the new EU and national rules do not introduce a strict obligation of equal pay between women and men, their goal is clear: to nudge the labor market toward greater pay transparency. The idea is to enable employees, and more broadly, labor market stakeholders to know and compare the average pay levels applied within companies, making any disparities easier to identify. In this scenario, companies may be called upon to justify, in concrete and objective terms, existing pay differences between female and male colleagues performing the same work or work of equal value.

*Trainees Francesco Cannavina and Rachele Miotello also contributed to this article.

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