Working in Italy: the collective agreement is your minimum wage, and two regimes cut your tax

Italian salaries are below Dutch ones — that is the honest starting point. But whoever knows the rules of the game gets more out of it: the collective agreement regulates what the law doesn't, and two tax regimes are downright generous to newcomers.

The CCNL: your collective agreement is your minimum wage — and your thirteenth and fourteenth month

Italy has no statutory minimum wage. What you earn is determined by the CCNL: the national sector collective agreement stated in your employment contract, together with your inquadramento — the job level that designates your pay scale. Check those two lines in every offer, because they also determine your probation period, your notice period, your tredicesima (thirteenth month, standard) and in many sectors a quattordicesima. Formally, collective agreements are not universally binding — but the courts apply the representative collective agreement as the constitutional wage floor, so even an employer outside the employers' association can't get out of it. And the income itself: since 2026 the IRPEF has three bands (23%, 33% — just lowered — and 43%), plus the regional and municipal surcharges that differ by up to four percentage points depending on where you live.

INPS and the NASpI: automatic — but you arrange the U1 yourself

Unlike in Scandinavia there is nothing to choose here: pension and unemployment insurance run automatically via INPS, the contribution is in the payroll deduction. Unemployment benefit is called NASpI: 75% of your average pay (capped at around € 1,585), tapering from the sixth month, for a duration of half your contribution weeks. The entry requirement is mild — thirteen weeks of contributions in four years; the thirty-working-day requirement that still circulates online was abolished in 2022. For Dutch citizens one rule counts double: your Dutch insurance years count via the U1 form from the UWV, but only after you have worked insured in Italy. So simply apply for that U1 before you leave — it costs nothing, and without it your counter starts at zero.

Two regimes that make the difference

For whoever comes into employment, the impatriati regime is waiting: whoever was not a tax resident of Italy in the past three years, is highly qualified (a university degree with a matching position suffices) and stays at least four years, pays tax for five years on only half of their pay — sixty percent exemption even, with a minor child. The old stories about 70 or 90% exemption only still apply to whoever moved before 2024. For the self-employed there is the forfettario: up to € 85,000 turnover a flat tax of 15% instead of the whole IRPEF stack, and for genuine starters 5% for the first five years — with the snag that it can't be combined with the impatriati regime, and that whoever earned more than € 35,000 from employment in the year before starting isn't allowed in. Whoever is unsure which regime fits needs exactly one good conversation with a commercialista — before the first contract is signed.

In Vertrekklaar this is phase 1 of 5 of the journey: the same steps, but for your situation — in your order, tickable, and with the deadlines watched. See the whole journey to Italy.