Between 2000 and 2023, the average wage in Italy raised, reaching almost 32,450 euros in 2023. However, in 2020 there was a decrease to 28,485 euros due to an economic crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, before increasing again to 30,247 euros in 2021. Male managers represented the group with the highest earnings. Their gross salary amounted to almost 110,000 euros a year, while the annual salary of women occupying the same position was equal to around 103,300 euros. Wages in the different industries Among the different sectors, employees working in financial and banking services benefitted from the largest wages, who earned on average 47,900 euros a year. On the other hand, the lowest salaries in Italy were those of people working in agriculture, forestry, fishing, and silviculture. Gender pay gap In 2023, compared to men, Italian women earned on average about 2,300 euros less per year. However, the gender pay gap differed from sector to sector. For instance, in 2020 in the banking and financial services, the salary of women was equal to 39,100 euros a year. On the other hand, the annual wage of men added up to 48,000 euros. Similarly, the annual salary of male employees working in the insurance industry was significantly higher than those of female employees. However, the gender pay gap in other fields was much lower. For example, in the agricultural sector, women and men earned roughly the same.

Key information about Italy Monthly Earnings

• Italy Monthly Earnings stood at 3,819 USD in Dec 2024, compared with the previous figure of 3,916 USD in Sep 2024
• Italy Monthly Earnings data is updated quarterly, available from Mar 1980 to Dec 2024, with an average number of 2,863 USD
• The data reached the an all-time high of 4,412 USD in Jun 2008 and a record low of 992 USD in Mar 1985

CEIC calculates Monthly Earnings from quarterly Compensation of Employees and quarterly Number of Employees, and converts it into USD. Italian National Institute of Statistics provides Compensation of Employees in EUR based on ESA 2010 and Number of Employees. Federal Reserve Board average market exchange rate is used for currency conversions. Monthly Earnings include Social contributions. Monthly Earnings prior to Q1 1995 are based on ESA 1995.


Further information about Italy Monthly Earnings

• In the latest reports, Italy Population reached 59 million people in Dec 2023
• Unemployment Rate of Italy increased to 6 % in Jan 2025
• The country's Labour Force Participation Rate increased to 67 % in Jan 2025

One year after obtaining their university title, graduates in Italy earned an average net salary of 1,340 euros per month in 2023. People graduating in 2020 were paid 240 euros more, while those who obtained their tertiary education diploma in 2018 gained monthly 1,900 euros net. Hence, average salaries proportionally raised as work experience augmented. On the contrary, the salary gap between women and men grew as career progressed. One year after graduation, women earned 180 euros less than male colleagues. However, for those graduated in 2020, this difference increased to 200 euros, and five years after graduation it reached 250 euros.

Located in the north of the country, Lombardy had the highest mean gross salary in 2023, while workers in Basilicata earned the lowest average wages nationwide. The figure for Lombardy amounted to 33,055 euros, around 870 euros more than in Lazio, where the capital Rome is situated, as reported by Job Pricing. Always in the north is located Trentino-South Tyrol, the region with the second-highest average gross salary, 32,200 euros per year. The last positions of the raking were occupied by the southern regions, with an average wage of 28,300 euros. High wages and large pay gap  According to the same source, employees working in banking and financial services had some of the largest salaries in Italy. However, men earned roughly 22 percent more than women (47,900 euros versus 39,200 euros). Similarly, the annual gross salary in the insurance industry was 29 percent higher in favor of men. Low-wage workers The south of Italy was also the place registering the highest percentage of low paid employees. These are employees with an hourly salary of less than two thirds of the median salary over the total number of employees. More specifically, in the south and on the islands, the share of low-wage employees was 15.6 and 14.6 percent, respectively. In the northern regions, the share amounted to only 7.8 percent.

This statistic depicts the average monthly net salary of full-time employees in Italy in 2016, broken down by citizenship. According to data, the salary of the Italian employees was the highest among all the indicated groups, reaching on average 1,501 euros net per month. The workers from the non-EU countries received monthly an average salary of 1,124 euros, roughly 80 euros less than the foreign employees from the UE countries.

In Italy, employees with a university degree earned on average 42,560 euros per year in 2023. According to data provided by JobPricing, the average annual gross salary of employees with a bachelor's was 31,660 euros, while those holding a master's were paid 12,500 euros more. In the same year, Italian graduates earned a monthly average of 1,340 euros net, one year after obtaining a university diploma.

In 2023, the average gross annual salary in Italy amounted to 30,838 euros. Among different sectors, employees working in financial and banking services earned the largest wages. According to data provided by JobPricing, people in this industry were paid on average 47,884 euros a year. On the other hand, the lowest salaries in Italy were those of farmers and fishermen. Salaries in Lombardy The northern region of Lombardy registered the highest gross salaries in the country. In 2023, it reached 33,055 euros. Furthermore, in 2022, people earned on average 33,900 euros per year in Lombardy's major center, Milan. The city is known to be the main financial center of Italy. On the other hand, southern regions recorded the lowest wages in Italy. Banking and financial services In Italy, the highest wages were recorded in the financial and banking sector. However, a substantial gap existed between the salaries of women and men. Indeed, in 2020, men working in this sector earned on average almost 22 percent more than women. As a result, women working in this sector faced one of the strongest gender pay gaps in Italy.

In 2023, employees who graduated in computer science earned around 2,150 euros net per month five years after obtaining their master's degree. Industrial and information engineers were paid 2,000 euros monthly. By contrast, graduates in psychology and education earned on average 1,400 euros, 370 euros less than the national mean. There were significant salary differences between male and female graduates, too. Women graduated in 2018 received 1,640 euros monthly in 2023, whereas men were paid an average of 1900 euros.

The average disposable income per capita is the ratio between the disposable income of consumer households and the total number of residents in a specific area. As of 2022, the highest income per person in Italy was registered in the north-west, with 24,800 euros per inhabitant. On the contrary, the south and the islands had the lowest figures, around 16,000 euros at disposal per resident, almost 9,000 euros less than Italians living in the north.

According to a research published in 2021, recent bachelor graduates in IT and ICT had the highest monthly wage in Italy. The study analyzed data from 2020, focusing on Italian undergraduates who achieved their bachelor degree in 2015. On average, the net salary of bachelor graduates in IT and ICT amounted to roughly 1.7 thousand euros a month. Master graduates in industrial and information engineering followed in the ranking.

As of 2019, 23.1 percent of pensioners in Italy received between 500 euros and 999 euros monthly, representing the most common income among pensioners. About 20.7 percent of people were paid from one thousand to 1,499 euros every month, while 12 percent were only given up to 499 euros. Overall, the data include all pensions: old-age, work injury, retirement, disability, sickness, and similar pensions.

In 2023, Italian women earned annually 2,300 euros less than men. However, the gender pay gap decreased in the last years. In 2016, it amounted to 12.7 percent in favor of men, whereas the difference in 2022 was equal to 11.5 percent. For 2023, it reduced to 7.3 percent. According to JobPricing, the annual gross salary of women amounted to 29,400 euros in 2023. On the other hand, men had an average annual salary of 31,700 euros. Differences in the sectors Different sectors registered various levels of pay gaps. For instance, in the banking and financial services, the difference in between the salaries of men and women favored men by 8,700 euros in 2020. Nonetheless, in very few sectors, the gap favors women. In the construction industry, women earned, on average, around 4,000 euros more than men. In the field of metallurgy and steel, women and men were equally paid. Regional differences In Italy, significant wage differences can also be observed among regions. As of 2023, the north Italian regions registered higher average annual salaries compared to the southern regions. Lombardy, in the north, had the highest average wages in the country, 33,000 euros per year. On the other hand, people living in Basilicata, in the south, had the lowest wages in the country, 26,200 euros annually.

Between February and September 2020, about 2.8 billion hours in form of wage subsidies were paid in Italy due to the COVID-19 emergency. Wage subsidies are paid in Italy to workers whose working activity has been suspended or reduced. The subsidies are paid by the Italian entities of social security. The month of April recorded the largest amount of hours of wage subsidies, when almost one billion hours were compensated. In terms of number of workers, this amount of hours is estimated to correspond to 5.5 million people.

As a consequence of the rising number of cases, in March the Italian government announced that the country is in lockdown and many non-essential activities had to shut down their operations. Currently, there is no strict national lockdown in the country and measures to limit mobility and large social gatherings are region or province based.

In 2020, people receiving the Citizens' Basic Income in Italy were given on average 567 euros per month. The Southern regions and Islands recorded the highest monthly average.

The Basic Income was launched in Italy in 2019 and was thought to reduce poverty and unemployment. Among others, the financial requirements to receive the basic income included having an annual indicator of the equivalized economic situation not above 9,360 euros.

The statistic shows the annual average household net income in Italy in 2019, broken down by age of the main income earner. According to the source, the annual household net income was the highest for families where the head was aged between 55 and 64 years, reaching 39 thousand euros.

Over this 23-year period, annual wages in Spain fluctuated greatly, ranging from a low of 28,685 euros in 2006 to a high of approximately 31,910 euros in 2009. The average annual wage stood at approximately 30,655 euros in 2023. Compared to other European countries, Spain ranked fairly low in 2022. The annual salary in the Iberian country was similar to salaries in Italy and Slovenia, but remained far from the figures that were registered in France, Ireland and Germany. Minimum wage Spain's minimum monthly wage was 1,134 euros as of 2024. Unlike the average annual wage, it has been constantly increasing on a nearly continuous basis since 2008, when the minimum wage was 600 euros per month. In 2019, the Socialist government of Spain passed a law by that increased the national minimum wage by 164 euros, therefore making it stand at 900 euros per month and reflecting the largest increase to date. Along with the monthly wage, the national minimum daily wage has also been raised consistently over the past years. In 2024, the gross minimum was 37.8 euros a day, whereas in 2000 it was 20 euros a day. Unequal pay The average salary in Spain diverges considerably according to different factors. For instance, the gender salary gap remains significant in the Mediterranean country, although it has shrunk in recent years. In 2021, the average salary for a male full-time employee was around nine percent higher than his female counterpart. The gender gap is even wider for permanent positions: that year, average annual salaries for women were roughly 6,000 euros less than average salaries for men. The salary gap is also conspicuous when looking at the wage for workers with disabilities, a gap that has increased in recent years. Geographic location is also important; the average net salary in regions such as Extremadura and the Canary Islands was less than 23,100 euros per year in 2022, far from the salary in the Basque Country and Madrid (32,300 and 31,200 euros, respectively).

In March 2024, the youth unemployment rate in Italy was 22.8 percent. The problem of unemployment in Italy became critical in the first years of the financial crisis, which started in 2008. Although the labor market crisis seriously affected the entire Italian working population, it particularly impacted the youngest part of the labor force. Between 2008 and 2014, the share of unemployed individuals aged between 15 and 24 years increased by more than 15 percentage points. Despite a steady decline observed after 2014, youth unemployment still stood at almost 30 percent as of 2020. The effects of the 2011-2012 financial crisis: dream job versus harsh reality Newly graduated and often looking for a first job, young people are particularly vulnerable to stagnation in the labor market. Considering the difficulties in finding a job during and after the years of the financial crisis, about 48 percent of young Italians declared in 2018 that they would accept a job that does not meet their career aspiration. One fourth of the respondents stated that they would accept a monthly salary of 500 euros. Youth unemployment rate in the EU: a serious challenge for Spain and ItalyItaly was the country with the fifth-highest youth unemployment rate among the EU member states in August 2023. The country with the highest youth unemployment was Spain, where more than one out of four individuals were unemployed.

In 2022, the average net income of a household in Italy amounted to 36,000 euros. The income of families living in the north-east reached around 41,000 euros, the highest in the country. In the south, Sicily, and Sardinia, instead, the net family income accounted for less than 30,000 euros.

Between 2000 and 2023, the annual gross household income in Italy steadily increased. In 2000, the per capita household income amounted to 21,000 U.S. dollars, while in 2023 it reached 43,000 U.S. dollars, more than the double compared to 2000.

As of 2019, the highest gross income per capita in Italy was registered in the region of Trentino-South Tyrol, with a total of 24.4 thousand euros per person.Trentino-South Tyrol is an autonomous region in Northern Italy. Since the 1970s, most legislative and administrative powers have been transferred to the two self-governing provinces that make up the region: Trentino and South Tyrol.