ROMA – The Covid crisis has been reabsorbed, thanks to public support for 60 billion to 15.7 million Italians. And it avoided a 55% greater reduction in income. Post-Covid Italy wakes up with a record employment rate of 60% (but far from the EU target of 70%), without the feared wave of layoffs, but poorer. “The crisis has left conspicuous tears in the distribution of working incomeit is necessary to rethink the social contract ”, warns the president of INPS Pasquale Tridico, illustrating the INPS annual report to the Chamber, in the presence of the President of the Republic Sergio Mattarella.
In Italy the phenomenon of in-work poverty is more marked than in other European countries. According to Eurostat, in 2019, 11.8% of Italian workers were poor, against a European average of 9.2%. “The percentage of workers below the threshold of € 9 gross per hour is 28%, or over 4.3 million, e almost one in three workers earns less than a thousand euros a month, also considering part-time workers ”, says Tridico. “It is therefore necessary to try to introduce corrective measures that lead to a recomposition of work performance, defining grids of working hours that help people to achieve a decent income”.
The percentage of part-time is 46% among women, the highest figure in the EU, compared to 18% among men, and a prevalent part of this part-time is considered involuntary. Fixed-term work has grown over the past two years and today has reached historical peak of over 4.2 million workers or 22.2%, excluding agricultural and domestic. The problem of forward contracts with a daily or weekly duration. 64.5% of employees in hotels and restaurants are “working poor”, compared with less than 5% in the financial sector.
Here then are these “snags”. “10% of full-time employees earn less than € 1,495, 50% less than € 2,058 and only 10% have gross salary levels above € 3,399”, says Tridico. “The average salary of women in 2021 was € 20,415, substantially unchanged compared to previous years and 25% lower than the corresponding male average”. 23% of workers earn less than 780 euros a month, the threshold of citizenship incomealso considering part-time workers.
In 2021 there are more people on the labor market than in 2020 (25.7 million people). “But many of the newly hired workers are employed for a reduced number of hours and receive wages that do not allow individuals to live in dignity”, insists Tridico. Over the past 15 years, the poorest half of the employed lost income shares between 2005 and 2020, while 85% experienced income growth. “Today we have 1,011 contractual forms: too many and often not representative”, Observes Tridico.
I’m only 27 National Collective Bargaining Agreements each cover over 100,000 employees and concentrate 78% of private employees (10.2 million workers). Those involving more than 10,000 employees each are 95 and 96% of the employees of private non-agricultural companies (12.5 million workers) refer to them. “The average daily salary for full-time employees is 98 euros gross, but within this broad perimeter there are too marked variations”. says Tridico.
Poor work also means poor pensions. The 32% of the checks social security is under one thousand euros gross per month. As of December 31, 2021, there were approximately 16 million pensioners in Italy, of which 7.7 million men and 8.3 million women, for approximately 22 million pension allowances. The gross amount of pensions paid in total in 2021 and? of 312 billion euros. Although women represent 52% of the total number of pensioners, they receive only 44% of pension income. The average monthly amount of income earned by men and? € 1,884 gross, from 37% higher than that of women, equal to 1,374 euros.
“We need more work and better paid work if we want to ensure the sustainability of its welfare system for the country,” says Tridico. “For the balance of the social security system, it is necessary to guarantee the sustainability? of shopping but also the widening of the contribution base both in terms of recovery of the submerged and an increase in the salary for regular workers “.
With a’inflation at 8% this year pensions in 2023 will grow by 24 billion. Based on the data as of January 1, 2020 (therefore without calculating the shock of the pandemic and the war), INPS calculates that the Bank’s balance sheet deficit could reach 92 billion in the 2029. “There is no sustainability problem – explain INPS – but there is one warning. It takes economic growth and productivity for a balanced system “.