Italy has officially integrated the European Union’s Pay Transparency Directive into its national legal framework through the enactment of Legislative Decree 96/2026, which entered into force on June 7, 2026. This legislative milestone positions Italy as one of the first EU member states to fully comply with the rigorous timetable established by the European Parliament and the Council in May 2023. The decree introduces a comprehensive set of obligations designed to eradicate the gender pay gap and ensure that "equal pay for work of equal value" becomes an enforceable reality rather than a mere aspirational goal. Applying to both the public and private sectors, the new regulations affect every stage of the employment lifecycle, from initial recruitment and job advertisements to periodic corporate reporting and internal pay structure disclosures.
The Legislative Foundation and European Context
The genesis of Legislative Decree 96/2026 lies in the European Union Directive 2023/970, which was adopted to strengthen the application of the principle of equal pay for men and women. Historically, the gender pay gap in the European Union has hovered around 13%, with significant variations across member states. In Italy, while the raw gender pay gap has often appeared lower than the EU average due to lower female workforce participation rates, the "adjusted" gap—which accounts for differences in education, experience, and sector—has remained a persistent challenge for policymakers.
By transposing this directive, the Italian government has opted for a faithful implementation of the EU text, avoiding "gold-plating" (the practice of adding extra national requirements beyond the EU mandate) while leveraging the country’s existing and robust framework of National Collective Bargaining Agreements (NCBAs). In the Italian labor market, these agreements, known as Contratti Collettivi Nazionali di Lavoro (CCNL), serve as the primary mechanism for defining job classifications and minimum wage standards. Under the new decree, these agreements now serve as the baseline for determining what constitutes "same work" or "work of equal value," providing a structured, though complex, landscape for employers to navigate.
Transforming Recruitment: A Ban on Salary History Inquiries
One of the most immediate changes introduced by the decree involves the recruitment process. Effective immediately, all job advertisements and vacancy announcements must include the initial salary or a specific pay band for the role. This requirement aims to eliminate information asymmetry, where employers hold more data than candidates, often leading to lower starting salaries for women and minority groups.
Furthermore, the decree explicitly prohibits employers—and any third-party recruiters acting on their behalf—from asking candidates about their current or previous remuneration. This "salary history ban" is a critical tool in preventing the "recycling" of pay discrimination from one job to the next. By forcing employers to offer pay based on the objective value of the role rather than a candidate’s past earnings, the law seeks to break the cycle of systemic underpayment.
Defining Remuneration: "Pay" versus "Pay Level"
Legislative Decree 96/2026 introduces nuanced definitions that distinguish between various forms of compensation, a distinction that is vital for compliance and reporting.
- Pay: This is defined broadly to include the basic wage or salary and any other consideration, whether in cash or in kind, which the worker receives directly or indirectly from the employer. This encompasses supplementary or variable components such as performance bonuses, commissions, and fringe benefits.
- Pay Level: This refers specifically to the gross annual salary and the corresponding gross hourly salary. Crucially, the decree excludes "non-structural" individual economic benefits from this definition. This includes discretionary amounts such as the superminimo—an Italian legal concept referring to an individual salary increase granted above the minimum provided by the NCBA.
The exclusion of the superminimo from the definition of "pay level" has sparked early debate among legal analysts. Because these discretionary amounts are often where individual pay differentiation occurs, some experts suggest that excluding them from certain transparency obligations might limit the law’s ability to expose subtle forms of bias. However, structural contractual elements, such as the 13th and 14th-month salaries and seniority increments (scatti di anzianità), remain firmly within the scope of the transparency requirements.
Disclosure Requirements for Employers
The decree mandates that all employers, regardless of size, must make the criteria used to determine pay and pay levels accessible to their employees. These criteria must be gender-neutral and objective.
For companies with more than 50 employees, this obligation extends to the criteria for "economic progression," or how an employee can expect their salary to grow over time. Companies with fewer than 50 employees are exempt from sharing the specific criteria for economic progression but must still comply with general transparency regarding current pay levels.
To simplify the administrative burden, the Italian government has allowed employers to fulfill these requirements by referring to the applicable National Collective Bargaining Agreement. If a company applies a CCNL signed by the most representative trade unions at the national level, simply citing the classification levels and remuneration scales within that agreement is deemed sufficient for compliance.
The Right to Information and Employee Privacy
Under the new law, employees have a codified right to request information regarding the average pay levels of their peers. This request can be made directly or through employee representatives, such as the Rappresentanze Sindacali Unitarie (RSU) or Rappresentanze Sindacali Aziendali (RSA).
Employers are required to respond to these requests in writing within two months. The information provided must show average pay levels broken down by gender for categories of workers performing the same work or work of equal value. To protect the privacy of individuals, particularly in smaller firms, the Ministry of Labor is expected to issue a subsequent decree outlining "anonymization" procedures. These will likely include standard templates and minimum group sizes to ensure that no individual’s specific salary can be reverse-engineered from the data provided.
Chronology of Reporting and Joint Assessments
The decree establishes a staggered timeline for "Gender Pay Gap Reports," with deadlines determined by the size of the workforce:
- Companies with 250+ employees: These organizations must collect and report data by June 7, 2027, and continue to do so on an annual basis.
- Companies with 150–249 employees: These organizations must report by June 7, 2027, but are only required to update their data every three years.
- Companies with 100–149 employees: These organizations have a longer transition period, with their first reporting deadline set for June 7, 2031, followed by triennial updates.
A critical component of the decree is the "Joint Assessment." If a company’s reporting reveals a gender pay gap of 5% or more that cannot be justified by objective, gender-neutral factors, and which has not been rectified within six months, the employer must conduct a formal assessment in cooperation with employee representatives. This joint assessment is intended to identify the root causes of the discrepancy and develop a mandatory remedial plan.
Implications for the Italian Labor Market
The implementation of Legislative Decree 96/2026 represents a paradigm shift for Human Resources departments across Italy. While the Italian labor system has long been structured around collective bargaining, the new emphasis on individual transparency and the prohibition of salary history inquiries will require a significant cultural adjustment.
Legal experts suggest that the "burden of proof" in discrimination cases is likely to shift more heavily toward the employer. If an employer has not complied with the transparency obligations set out in the decree, they may find it significantly harder to defend themselves against claims of pay discrimination in court. Furthermore, the involvement of the RSU and RSA in joint assessments grants trade unions a more granular look at corporate payroll data than they have historically possessed.
From an administrative perspective, the reliance on the existing CCNL framework is seen as a pragmatic move by the Italian legislature. It provides a familiar vocabulary for "same work" and "work of equal value," which might otherwise be subject to endless litigation. However, the true test of the law will be in how the Ministry of Labor interprets "non-structural" pay components and how effectively small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) can adapt to the new reporting burdens.
Future Outlook and Corporate Readiness
As the 2027 deadline for the first wave of reporting approaches, Italian employers are encouraged to conduct internal "shadow audits" to identify potential pay gaps before they are legally required to disclose them. Reviewing job descriptions, standardizing the criteria for discretionary bonuses, and training hiring managers on the new ban on salary history questions are essential first steps.
While Italy has met the EU’s deadline, the journey toward total pay transparency is only beginning. The success of the decree will depend on the clarity of the forthcoming interpretative guidance from the Ministry of Labor and the vigilance of equality bodies in monitoring the submitted reports. For now, the message to the Italian business community is clear: the era of salary secrecy is coming to a close, replaced by a new standard of accountability and gender equity.
