The gross remuneration roof of 240 thousand euros for public employees is illegitimate. This was established by the Constitutional Court, which declared the illegitimacy of art. 13, paragraph 1, of the decree law n. 66 of 2014 wanted by the Renzi government. The Constitutional Court has specified that a remuneration roof is not in itself unconstitutional, but the parameter must be defined by decree of the Prime Minister, after the opinion of the competent parliamentary commissions.
How the norm changes now
We then return to the previous limit, equal to the economic treatment due to the first president of the Court of Cassation. The maximum remuneration limit had been introduced with a decree law of 2011, but with the 2014 law decree the roof was instead determined in its fixed amount, precisely 240 thousand euros, with a significant reduction of the economic treatment of some magistrates.
Wanted by Matteo Renzi, the rule had been considered constitutionally illegitimate, but had been considered an extraordinary and temporary measure, given the situation of financial crisis in which the country was facing in those years. With the passage of time, however, it has definitively lost that requirement of temporaryity; Today’s pronunciation, July 28, 2025, in addition to making the regulation of 2014 illegitimate, sets itself in line with the principles to which multiple constitutional systems of other states are inspired.
The Consulta specified that its decision has no retroactive effect. Therefore, the rules in force until the publication of the ruling in the Official Gazette remain valid for the past, but they can no longer be applied from the following day.
But a new law could arrive
It is therefore a return to a more flexible system, which allows adjustments over time according to the evolution of the reference salaries. In practice, it will no longer be possible to apply the same maximum threshold indiscriminately to all public managers or to the high profiles of the state administration, but it will be necessary to evaluate on a case -by -case basis.
However, the Consulta said that a remuneration roof does not go against the Constitution, but the decision must be made by the Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, by decree.
What changes for the public administration
The ruling of the Constitutional Court has an impact on the entire public administration, as it involves the entire remuneration system of public employees. With the illegitimacy of Article 13, now these, in particular the managers, will be able to return to see their salaries hooked to the effective value of the remuneration of the first president of the Court of Cassation, which today is about 313 thousand euros lordi per year.
If first a manager perceived a salary initially aligned with that of the first president, with the introduction of the fixed limit of 2014 he had found himself subject to an automatic reduction. Now, however, the manager will be able to see his remuneration treatment return to adapt, with possible increases based on future updates.
The Court’s decision therefore does not involve only ministerial magistrates or managers, but also administrators, officials, general directors and other profiles that, in recent years, had been involved in the cutting of wages based on the 2014 threshold. With the new setting, the way opens up to an overall revision of the pay mechanisms, aimed at enhancing the skills and guaranteeing greater fairness.
