How much do we earn in Italy? On average, about 32 thousand euros gross per year, with an average monthly net salary that arrives in the paycheck between around 1700 and 1850 euros. Those who study the more, the more he earns: the wages grow in fact with the level of education (on average a graduate earns 38.8% more than one non -graduate). To influence the RALs is the territory, with sensitive differences in wages between North, Center, South and Islands. Another factor is that of the genre, with an average gender pay gap of 5.6%, which grows up to 30% among the managers. To influence salaries, again, there are the age, and therefore the experience of the worker and the dimensions of the companies, understood as number of employees: in larger companies you earn more. But let’s see the data in detail.
General data on RAL in Italy
First of all, what is RAL? It is an acronym that stands by “gross annual salary” and corresponds to the total amount that an employee receives in a year, gross of tax and contributory deductions, intended for INPS and Irpef, removing which the net salary value is obtained, that is, the one that ends up in our pockets. The RAL is obtained by adding up all the monthly gross salaries, including any thirteenth and fourteenth and other elements included in the contract agreed with the employer, such as the hours of extraordinary flat -rate work, while the severance pay (severance indemnity is excluded from this sum, a compulsory sum set aside every year by the employer who is returned to the worker when he leaves the company) and any good meal. prizes.
According to data from the latest Istat report “The remuneration structure in Italy”, published in 2025 and referring to the year 2022, the national RAL Media is 31,856 euros, with an average for managers (which represent 1.1% of the total workers) of 106,606 euros, of 56,746 euros for the paintings (corresponding to 4.4% of the workers), of 33,358 euros for the employees for employees (39.2% of workers) and finally 27,266 euros for workers (55.2%). Over the years, salary growth has been more consistent for those who perceive a lower remuneration: the pay growth of the workers has been more sustained than that of employees and paintings.
How much do you earn in the different regions? The gap between North, South and Islands
The wages vary according to the region, with northern Italy that generally offers higher salaries than in the South. According to data from the Job Pricing Observatory, reported in the JP Salary Outlook 2024, northern Italy has higher average salaries, with a difference in RAL of 3,550 euros compared to the south and islands.
In particular, the average gross salary in the North is 32,913, at the center of 31,956 euros and in the South and islands of 29,375 euros. Taking into account the RGA – i.e. the global annual remuneration which also includes any variable component perceived by the worker, including the bonuses that are not calculated in the RAL – the gap between north and south rises to over 4,300 euros. Between the north and the center, however, the differential is equal to about 1,000 euros in RAL and stands at around 1,100 euros in RGA.
The regions where the highest salaries are paid are Lombardy (with Milan head), with an average RAL of 33,635 euros, Lazio (33,242) and Trentino-Alto Adige (33,532), while Calabria, Sicily and Basilicata are those with minor salaries, in particular the latter, where the average gross remuneration is 27,232 euros. The average net salary, which arrives in the paycheck to the worker, in Lombardy is therefore around 1500 euros, against a salary of 1215 euros in Basilicata.
In the table below, the differences between medium rals for framing between North and South and islands, which mainly weigh paintings and employees:
The most paid works and the regions where you earn more
What professions do the best earnings guarantee? According to data from the Job Pricing Observatory, the most profitable sectors are the financial services, with an average RAL of 45,461 euros, that of the “utilities”, that is, companies that provide essential services such as electricity, gas, water, and telecommunications, with 34,861 euros of gross salary, the process industry (33,710 euros) and that manufacturing that manufacturing (33,349 euros). Following are the Services, Commerce, Building and Agriculture sectors.
The most paid professions are concentrated in the sectors where a high specialization prevails, while the works with lower wages in the sectors where scientific skills are limited or not very relevant. Those who work in banks and financial services are thus positioned in first place, with an average RAL of 46,354 euros; Then there are the workers of the engineering sectors (40,372 euros), pharmaceutical and biotechnology (39,640 euros) and telecommunications (38,950 euros). At the opposite extreme there are personal services (24,916 euros), agriculture (25,114 euros) and the hotel and catering sector (25,855 euros).
The most paid professionals are generally notaries, with an average salary that depending on seniority and duties starts 60 thousand and also reaches 200 thousand euros a year. In second position the architecture managers (average salary of 168 thousand euros) and data analysts (150 thousand euros), doctors (between 70 and 110 thousand euros), marketing directors (93 thousand euros), financial advisors (the Junior earn 30 thousand euros, while the more experts also reach 130 thousand). Following, again, the pharmacists (the owners also reach 60 thousand), the plane pilots (around 70 thousand), the architects and engineers (between 38 and 80 thousand euros). Do you know how much a mayor earns? It depends on the Municipality: in small ones, with less than 3 thousand inhabitants, about 2 thousand euros gross monthly, but in the metropolitan cities almost 14 thousand euros.
The gaps between wages: the gender pay gap
In the different reports, inequalities in very strong wages still emerge, linked to different factors, from gender to age, from qualifications to the type of contract.
Let’s start with the so -called Gender Pay Gap, the remuneration differential between men and women, so men gain more than their colleagues for the same roles and times. The data of the 2024 report of the INPS, the National Institute of Social Security, speak of an average time income of women of 20 points lower than that of the equal men’s gender role, in particular of a difference of 20% in manufacturing activities, 23.7% in the field of trade, of 16.3% in accommodation and catering services, while the wider gap is perceived in the field of financial, insurance and businesses. Women is also 32.1% lower than that of equal men.
As pointed out in the 2024 INPS 2024 report, the remuneration difference between males and females is reduced to a minimum in part time jobs – where the salary is often already low -, while it increases in full time uses, without significant differences between public and private. However, it should be specified that the greatest use of part time contracts for women at least partially affects the total annual remuneration gap-also according to the world report of the Iol on wages 2024-25. It will perhaps be surprised to find out that Italy, in this report, is one of the high -income countries with less wage inequalities, with a calculated rate of 9.3 percent, one of the lowest of the countries of the European Union, against Estonia and the Netherlands are among the group’s countries with the highest wage inequalities – together, in the world, to the United States.
According to the IOL report, more than three quarters of the world population of employees is exposed to considerable wage inequalities, which increase in low -income countries and lower themselves in high income: with less than 1% of employees classified as recipients of low wages, ours is one of the countries with less wage inequalities!
The gap to the level of education, age and size of the company
According to data from the Job Pricing Observatory, on average a graduate earns 38.8% more than one non -graduate: the average RAL of graduates for 2024 is 41,716 euros compared to the 30,063 euros of the non -graduate. A difference that depends mainly, greater possibility for graduates to access more relevant corporate positions, with better contractual levels and, consequently, higher salaries.
Also according to Istat data, the average annual remuneration grows proportional to the qualifications of the worker, in all sectors and for both men and women – even if it grows more for men. Those who have a secondary secondary education title (diploma) perceive 18.5% more remuneration than those who only have the average license. Those who have a level of tertiary education (degree, master and beyond) reaches 58.8% more.
Not only the level of education, but also the age of the worker influences the salaries: workers over 50 earn 65.5% more than workers between 14 and 29 years old – for women the difference is 38.6%. The difference is also evident in the hourly salary, on average 16.4 euros: the under 30s have an hourly salary of 11.9 euros, for 24.7% less than the workers’ range between 30 and 49 years (15.8 euros) and for 36.4% to that of the over 50 employees (18.7 euros).
Last, but not least, to influence the average hourly wages is also the size of the company: those in companies between 10 and 49 employees are lower – with 12.8 euros/hour for the smallest – and are greater in companies with at least 1000 employees, which reach up to pay up to 19.2 euros per hour.
