Italy’s corporate welfare reforms drive surge in employee meal‑voucher schemes

Emmanuele Massagli, president of the Associazione Italiana Welfare Aziendale (AIWA), says the 2016 corporate‑welfare reform triggered a massive expansion of company welfare plans in Italy. In the first five years the number of plans grew 497%, and after ten years the increase reached 899%, now covering roughly four million workers.

The Italian meal‑voucher market is dominated by four groups—Edenred, Day, Pluxee and ePellegrini—whose financial intermediaries process payments. Merchants receive only a portion of the voucher’s face value after commissions are deducted, and reimbursement can take from 30 to 90 days, effectively providing indirect financing to the circuit.