The game for the last budget law of the legislature is already underway. Even if the decisive moment will be played when there is a clear picture of the available resources, as always in a path that requires a direct line with Brussels. After the words of the Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni, and the Minister of Labour, Marina Calderone, the work package promises to be quite important. With the dual objective of supporting wages and businesses. But let's see in detail the measures being studied by the technicians, other than the Irpef reduction with a rate of 33% up to 60 thousand euros of income, which is also a priority of the Meloni executive.
A highlight is represented by the extension of the tax relief on the renewals of national collective labor agreements in order to encourage salary adjustment to the cost of living and to strengthen the link between productivity and salary. With the last budget, the salary increases paid to employees of the private sector in the year 2026 are subject to a substitute tax of the Irpef and the regional and municipal surtaxes equal to 5%, in implementation of contractual renewals signed from 1 January 2024 to 31 December 2026. The measure applies to workers in the private sector who have income from employment - in the year 2025 - not exceeding 33 thousand euros. According to the technical report on the 2026 budget, approximately 3.8 million workers are the potential beneficiaries of the 5% substitute tax on the salary increases paid to private sector employees in 2026, in implementation of the contractual renewals signed from 1 January 2024 to 31 December 2026. Both the prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, and the owner of Labour, Marina Calderone, have expressed their intention to renew the measure in the next budget law within a broader range of measures to support paychecks and productivity.
In view of the 2027 budget being studied by the government, there is also a further strengthening of performance bonuses, given the progress made thanks also to the favorable tax rules. In fact, with the 2026 budget, the substitute tax on production bonuses (and on employee profit sharing quotas) went from 5 to 1%. It applies to amounts ranging from 3 thousand to 5 thousand euros. The technical report to the last budget law estimated a potential audience of subjects involved of around 250 thousand units. The measure then extended to 2026 the rule which provides for the inclusion of 50% of income taxes in the taxable base for dividends paid to employees and deriving from shares attributed by companies in lieu of performance bonuses (excluding the portion of such dividends exceeding the limit of 1,500 euros, for which full inclusion in the taxable base remains unchanged). Bonuses linked to contracts that provide performance bonuses and participation in company profits had already benefited from a reduction in the rate from 10 to 5% with the budget law for 2023; the measure was then confirmed in the budget for 2024, and extended by the budget law for 2025. According to the latest data, updated to 15 July, from the Ministry of Labor, the number of employees benefiting from this additional salary linked to company performance has risen to over 4.2 million, 4,241,031 to be precise: the average annual bonus paid to these workers has exceeded 1,800 euros, we are at 1,815.43 euros, with a growth of 210.19 euros on December 2025.
Still on the subject of salary support, the government is also studying the confirmation, for next year, of the 15% taxation of allowances and salary increases. With the last budget it was established that for the 2026 tax period, the sums paid, within the annual limit of 1,500 euros, to employees in the private sector, will be subject to a substitute tax of the Irpef and the regional and municipal surcharges equal to 15%, by way of: increases and allowances for night work (article 1, paragraph 2, of Legislative Decree 66/2003 and of the Ccnl); increases and compensation for work performed on public holidays and weekly rest days (as identified by the Ccnl); shift allowance and further emoluments connected to shift work (provided for by the Ccnl). The measure operates unless expressly waived in writing by the employee. The interventions are applied by private sector withholding agents towards holders of employee income of an amount not exceeding, in the year 2025, 40 thousand euros. The technical report on the last maneuver estimates the number of workers affected by this measure at 2.3 million. Also with the Budget Law for 2026, the supplementary treatment of 15% on gross wages for night work and overtime on public holidays carried out from 1 January to 30 September 2026 was proposed again. The benefit is intended for workers in food and drink administration establishments and workers in the tourism-hotel sector, including spa establishments, holders of employment income of an amount not exceeding 40 thousand euros (period tax 2025). Also in this case we would be thinking about an extension.
Another central theme is stable work, starting with young people and women, who are more in difficulty today, despite the strong increase in employment (but which is driven by the over 50s). With the May 1st decree, the government rewrote the incentives to support the stable employment of young people and women. Overall, the provision allocated 934 million euros in the three-year period 2026-2028: 497.5 million for the under 35 bonus; 175 million for the transformation of fixed-term contracts (lasting up to 12 months) into permanent contracts, again for young people; 141.5 million for the women's bonus and the remaining 120 million for the incentive for stable work for the benefit of the over 35 unemployed of the Zes Unica per il Mezzogiorno. With this poker of interventions, the executive estimates encouraging a further 110,700 stable contracts. The government is thinking of extending them also in 2027, and, resources permitting, also strengthening them further.
