Ruling parties are divided over introducing a statutory minimum wage in response to rising inflation as negotiations on the EU Directive on adequate minimum wages enter the final round.
Italy, like Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Cyprus and Austria, has no minimum wage by law.
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A bill introducing a statutory minimum wage is currently with the Senate. Meanwhile, the German Bundestag decided on 3 June to raise the legal minimum wage from 9.82 to 12 per hour, starting from October.
“On the minimum wage, I see positive openings from all sides”, labour minister Andrea Orlando who has called for “immediate action to include a minimum wage by law” in the country, said on Saturday (4 June). According to her, such a measure would support lower-income families as inflation grows.
However, the ruling parties remain divided on the issue.
“The legal minimum wage goes against our cultural history of industrial relations,” Renato Brunetta, public administration minister and member of the right-wing Forza Italia party, said at the Trento Festival of Economics on Saturday (4 June). According to him, wages “must correspond to productivity.”
However, the ruling Democratic Party and the Five-Star Movement support the measure.
“If it is normal for some politicians to take minimum wages of 3-4 gross per hour, then we say that this is not the policy of the 5 Star Movement. We will not accept it,...
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