Hire Employees in Italy

An SRL is the usual vehicle and takes four to eight weeks including notarial incorporation, VAT registration and INPS and INAIL enrolment. A branch is possible but carries similar obligations without the liability separation.

Before any of that, identify the CCNL that will apply, it determines minimum pay, notice, probation and whether a fourteenth month is owed, and there are more than 900 registered agreements.

EOR for the first hires and for testing the market. Entity once Italy is settled.

Contractors are tightly policed. A collaborazione (quasi-subordinate contractor arrangement) that is personal, continuous and organised by the client is converted to employment by law under article 2 of D.Lgs. 81/2015, and with it comes the CCNL that would have applied, retroactively.

Break-even rule of thumb: EOR fees begin to exceed the running cost of a small Italian entity somewhere between 15 and 20 employees. Model both before committing, see EOR vs Entity for the full comparison, and plan any later migration so employees keep seniority.

Already paying someone in Italy as a contractor? Run the risk check before the arrangement is tested by an audit.

Not sure which model fits? A GX specialist will cost EOR vs entity for your exact headcount, free, within two business days. Get a model recommendation

Italy has no statutory minimum wage. Pay floors come from the CCNL for the sector, so the first question when costing a hire is which agreement applies, the answer changes minimum pay, notice, probation and whether a 14th month is owed.

The TFR is worth understanding properly: 6.91% of pay accrues every month as deferred severance, payable when employment ends for any reason. It is a real cost but not a tax, it is the employee’s money, held back. Employers with 50 or more staff have remitted it to the INPS Fondo di Tesoreria since 2007 under Legge 296/2006, that is long-standing, not new. Balances still held in the company must be revalued annually at 1.5% plus 75% of the ISTAT index, an obligation that disappears once the TFR is transferred out. What is new for 2026 is automatic pension enrolment for first-job employees from 1 July.

The annual contribution ceiling is €122,295 for 2026, under article 2 comma 18 of Legge 335/1995. It applies only to employees with no contribution history at 31 December 1995, is not divisible across months, and above it no pension contribution is due and no further pension right accrues. The €120,607 figure still circulating is the 2025 value.

The Italian contribution ceiling applies to some employees and not others. The annual maximum of €122,295 for 2026 covers only workers first registered with a compulsory pension scheme after 31 December 1995, or who opted into the contributory system. Anyone first registered before 1996 has no ceiling at all, so two employees on identical salaries can carry materially different employer cost purely by reference to when they first entered the system, which no salary-based model will catch. Two changes landed this year. From 1 January, employers with 50 or more staff must transfer TFR to the INPS Fondo di Tesoreria rather than holding it internally, and this catches employers who cross the threshold after hiring, turning a balance-sheet provision into a monthly outflow. From 1 July, new private-sector hires are automatically enrolled in supplementary pension provision unless they opt out within 60 days, so TFR now defaults into a pension fund by silence rather than by choice.

Four representative profiles at the 2026 rates. Salaries are illustrative market midpoints, not GX operating data. The 13th and 14th months are shown separately; INAIL accident cover is not included. For real market data on your roles, ask for a costing.

Four representative profiles costed on 2026 statutory rates. Salaries are illustrative market midpoints, to be replaced with GX operating data.

The busta paga (payslip) must follow the format the applicable CCNL requires. IRPEF is withheld monthly, and regional and municipal surcharges are added on top of the national bands, these vary by the employee’s municipality of residence, not the employer’s location.

The 13th month is paid in December. Where the CCNL provides a 14th, it usually falls in June. Both attract full contributions.

IRPEF is withheld monthly against the national bands, with regional and municipal surcharges added on top. Those surcharges follow the employee’s municipality of residence, not the employer’s location, so two colleagues on identical pay net different amounts.

The impatriate regime reduces taxable employment income for qualifying inbound workers who commit to remaining tax-resident for a set period, worth modelling before relocating senior staff.

The Civil Code and the Statuto dei Lavoratori set the framework, but the CCNL does most of the practical work: pay scales by level, notice by seniority, probation length, additional monthly payments and permessi.

Applying the wrong agreement understates cost and is recoverable by the employee. It is the first thing to establish, not a detail to settle later.

The indefinite contract is the default. Fixed-term contracts are capped at 12 months without justification and 24 with one of the reasons the law allows, and repeated renewals convert the relationship to indefinite.

Probation length is set by the CCNL, commonly two months for junior roles and up to six for senior ones. It must be in writing and signed before work begins, a probation clause agreed afterwards is void.

Forty hours a week is the statutory norm, with the CCNL often setting less. The average must not exceed 48 hours including overtime over a four-month reference period.

Employees are entitled to 11 consecutive hours of daily rest and 24 hours of weekly rest, normally on Sunday. Overtime premiums are set by the CCNL rather than the Code.

Four weeks of paid annual leave is the statutory floor, typically 26 working days on a six-day count. Two weeks must be taken in the year they accrue; the balance within 18 months of the year end.

Most CCNLs add permessi (paid leave permits), additional paid hours of leave, often around 32 to 104 hours a year depending on the agreement. These are a real entitlement and are easy to overlook when budgeting.

Twelve public holidays a year, plus the local patron saint’s day, which differs by municipality. Milan on 7 December, Rome on 29 June. For a distributed Italian team the calendar is not uniform.

Work on a public holiday attracts a premium set by the CCNL.

Italy observes 11 paid public holidays in 2026. Dates that fall at a weekend and any substitution rules are set out below; entitlement is separate from annual leave.

Maternity: five months of compulsory leave, normally two before the birth and three after, paid at 80% by INPS with many CCNLs requiring the employer to top up to 100%.

Paternity: ten days of compulsory leave, paid at 100% by INPS.

Parental leave: up to ten months shared between parents until the child is 12, paid at rates that step down over the period.

Sick leave: INPS pays from the fourth day; the CCNL almost always requires the employer to cover the first three and to top up thereafter, often to full pay for a defined period.

There is no at-will employment. Dismissal requires just cause or a justified reason, and a written procedure. For economic dismissals the employer must show the objective business reason and, in many cases, attempt redeployment.

Notice is set by the CCNL and varies by seniority and length of service, commonly two to six months for managers.

TFR is always payable on termination regardless of the reason, including resignation and dismissal for cause. It is accrued pay, not severance in the compensatory sense.

Unlawful dismissal remedies depend on company size and hire date, ranging from compensation to reinstatement.

EU nationals need no permit. For others, the general route runs through the decreto flussi (annual quota decree for non-EU workers), which opens in limited annual windows with a fixed quota, often exhausted within hours.

The EU Blue Card and intra-company transfer routes sit outside the quota and are the practical path for skilled hires. Allow two to five months including the nulla osta and entry visa.

The Ispettorato Nazionale del Lavoro pursues the wrong CCNL, disguised collaborations, undeclared work and TFR handling.

TFR is the one foreign employers most often mismanage: it accrues from day one, is owed on any exit including resignation, and for employers with 50 or more staff must be remitted to the INPS treasury fund rather than held on the balance sheet.

Italian courts and inspectors look at etero-organiszazione (organisation of the work by the client), whether the client organises the work in time and place, alongside continuity and personal performance. The contract label is largely irrelevant.

Answer for the Italy-based person you currently pay on invoice. Indicative only, not legal advice.

The comunicazione obbligatoria (mandatory notification) must be filed by the day before the employee starts. Filing late, or on the first day, is an offence in itself.

Confirm before the offer: which CCNL applies, the minimum for the intended level, whether a fourteenth month is owed, and whether the role involves concluding contracts in Italy.

Work backwards from the start date. For a local hire through an EOR, 2 to 3 weeks is realistic once identity documents, bank details and the signed contract are in hand. For a foreign national requiring a permit, add the immigration timeline set out above before promising a date.

Confirm three things before making an offer: that the candidate has the right to work in Italy; that the salary clears any statutory or sector minimum that applies to the role; and whether the work involves concluding contracts locally, which can create a taxable presence for the client entity.

Collect the statutory registrations early. Social security enrolment, tax registration and any mandatory insurance generally must be in place before the first payroll runs, not after it.