Italian Employer Rates and Thresholds 2026

Italian employers pay INPS social security on gross pay. The biggest item is the IVS pension contribution, of which the employer pays 23.81% of the 33% total. For employees first insured after 1995, which covers most hires, it stops at the 2026 ceiling (massimale) of €122,295 a year; the other INPS contributions continue above it.

The minor INPS contributions below are for a services-sector employer with more than five employees; they differ in industry and other sectors. Fixed-term contracts pay an extra 1.4% unemployment surcharge, plus 0.5 points for each renewal. TFR isn't a contribution but a severance amount the employer must set aside every year.

Employer amounts at the rates above, including TFR and INAIL:

• Set by the collective agreement. Under the commerce and services agreement, employees receive a 13th month's pay (tredicesima) on Christmas Eve and a 14th (quattordicesima) on 1 July, each equal to one month's actual pay and reduced pro rata for part-year service.
• The normal working week is 40 hours; collective agreements can set fewer hours or average them over up to a year. Average weekly working time, including overtime, can't exceed 48 hours, measured over up to four months (extendable to six or twelve months by collective agreement).
• Overtime must be kept limited and is paid separately at the premiums set by the collective agreement, which can also allow compensatory rest instead of or as well as the premium. Without an applicable collective agreement, overtime needs the employee's agreement and is capped at 250 hours a year.
• At least four weeks of paid leave a year. Unless a collective agreement says otherwise, at least two weeks must be taken in the year they're earned (consecutively if the employee asks) and the rest within 18 months after that year. The four-week minimum can't be paid out instead of taken, except when employment ends.
• Compulsory maternity leave of five months: two months before the expected birth and three after, or, if doctors certify it is safe, all five months after the birth. It carries an allowance of 80% of pay. Fathers must take ten working days of paternity leave (20 for multiple births) between two months before and five months after the birth, paid at 100%.

• A fixed-term contract can run for up to 12 months. It can run longer, up to 24 months, only in cases set by collective agreements, for technical, organisational or production needs agreed by the parties under the company's collective agreement (until 31 December 2026), or to replace other workers. Successive fixed-term contracts with the same worker for the same level of work are also capped at 24 months in total. Breaching either limit turns the contract into a permanent one.
• Set by the collective agreement. Under the commerce and services agreement (CCNL Terziario), the maximum is six months for managers (Quadri) and level I, 60 days of actual work for levels II to V and 45 days for levels VI and VII. Either side can end the contract at any time during probation without notice; the employee still receives the accrued TFR, 13th and 14th salaries and holiday pay.
• Set by the collective agreement by job level and length of service. Under the commerce and services agreement, employer notice of dismissal ranges from 15 to 60 calendar days with up to five years' service (levels VII to I and Quadri), 20 to 90 days with five to ten years, and 20 to 120 days beyond ten years. Pay in lieu of notice includes the 13th and 14th salary accruals.
• A dismissal needs just cause or a justified subjective or objective reason. For employees hired since 7 March 2015, if a court finds no valid reason it ends the employment and awards compensation of between 6 and 36 months' pay, set by the judge. If the fact alleged to justify the dismissal is shown not to exist, the court orders reinstatement plus up to 12 months' back pay and contributions.
• An agency authorised under Legislative Decree 276/2003 may supply its own employees to work under a client's direction and control. A supply contract that isn't in writing is void and the workers count as the client's employees; if the supply breaches the statutory limits and conditions, the worker can ask to be employed by the client from the start of the assignment.