Minimum wage and citizenship income, Italy short circuit risk

There is a serious problem with wages and purchasing power, constantly reduced by rising inflation. Economic policy measures capable of guaranteeing support without causing damage would be needed in Italy. It is not easy to do it by definition and it is even more difficult to do it at this stage, with a majority as large as it is divided: citizenship income yes or no, minimum wage yes or no, tax wedge cut yes, but how? The positions on the field are far from each other and are certainly too many. The real risk is that of a short circuit that does not allow to move in one direction rather than another. It would be necessary to bring together the government, the majority and the social partners, finding a compromise that is useful for a labor market which, first with the pandemic and then with the consequences of the war in Ukraine, continues to propose wages that are too low to hold up. ‘price increase. In fact, however, a dense network of crossed vetoes makes it difficult even to imagine a road map that can lead to unblocking the situation. Starting from the minimum wage, there is a substantial opening from Prime Minister Mario Draghi, closer at this stage to the position of the Minister of Labor Andrea Orlando, convinced that a proposal can be enhanced which envisages as “the overall remuneration contained in the contracts can become the reference minimum wage for all workers in that sector “. The evaluations expressed by the governor of the Bank of Italy Ignazio Visco are also in line: “If well studied it is a good thing”. To get to study it, however, we need a political green light that is not there, as the words of the Minister of Public Administration Renato Brunetta demonstrate, who considers the minimum wage “against our cultural history of industrial relations”. And we also need a cohesion in the social partners that seems very distant. The CISL is against the minimum wage, the Cgil of Maurizio Landini threatens the square, the president of Confindustria Carlo Bonomi closes the game in his own way: “It is not our theme”. However, a first significant contribution could come from the EU Commission. If political agreement was reached on the minimum wage directive, as seems likely, it would be a full stop. At least as far as a shared playing field is concerned. The aim is to establish a framework for setting adequate and fair minimum wages respecting the different national approaches of the Twenty-seven, strengthening the role of collective bargaining. The road, in Italy, would still remain narrow. The minimum wage is linked to the cut of the tax wedge, an indispensable measure that everyone would like to bring to his side, and to the citizenship income, a measure that many would like to abolish but which remains the flag measure of the Cinquestelle Movement. Cutting taxes on labor is a matter of resources, proportions and choices. Confindustria would like a cut of 16 billion, to the benefit of businesses, which the government cannot afford, unless it wants to make a substantial deficit. The possible mediation, using the resources that come from the recovery of the fight against tax evasion, inevitably sounds like a promise repeated over time and never kept. Giuseppe Conte seems the most determined of all. “There are poor workers who have starvation wages we have been saying for a long time and as M5S we are more determined than ever to approve the minimum wage.” But, let’s be clear, citizenship income is not touched: “We must maintain it, we must guard it: I find it unworthy that a certain policy, fortunately not all of it, concentrates its efforts to remove this absolutely necessary measure”. On the contrary Giorgia Meloni, from ‘opposition, clearly says that citizenship income must be eliminated in order to find the resources necessary to finance the cut of the tax wedge. And she defines the minimum wage as “the classic weapon of mass distraction, with respect to the complex of problems of the world of work”. Matteo Salvini, on the other hand, insists on a flat tax of 15% for companies, because companies have to pay wages. With the electoral campaign increasingly heated, it seems difficult to find a solution. Unless Draghi decides to impose it ‘by force’, as he did with the Competition bill and the bathing concessions. He will do it only if the situation dictates it or if he finds a solid side within the majority and with the social partners. (by Fabio Insenga)