Italy advances gender pay gap measures and professional compensation reform

The Italian government is intensifying efforts to close the gender pay gap. Recent ISTAT data show women in the private sector earn an average daily wage of €82.63 versus €111.25 for men, a 25.7% gap. The gap stands at 23.6% in commerce and 15.7% in tourism. Premier Giorgia Meloni has highlighted the issue, linking it to a new decree that transposes the EU transparency directive on gender‑pay equality and gives collective bargaining a central role in setting objective, gender‑neutral pay classifications.

At the same time, the DDL Professioni bill, which has cleared the Senate and moves to the Chamber of Deputies, seeks to modernise the regulation of free‑professionals such as architects and engineers. Felice De Luca, president of Fondazione Inarcassa, says the bill aims to ensure equitable and adequate compensation, promote aggregation of practices, and introduce welfare measures, all intended to reduce the gender gap within professional sectors.