2023 smiles at domestic workers, who have been able to sleep a little more peacefully since yesterday. Unlike many employing families, which have already experienced months of high inflation. In fact, employers’ associations of domestic work and workers’ representatives did not reach an agreement on the renewal of contracts for cleaning workers, caretakers and babysitters, for which a salary adjustment of 9.2% will now be due. A bit like pensions, in short, wages will be adjusted to the cost of living. “The Filcams-Cgil, Fisascat-Cisl, Uiltucs and Federcolf unions did not want to accept the proposal of the employers’ associations represented by Fidaldo to stagger the increases due throughout the year”, explained the National Federation of Domestic Workers Employers of Work at the end of the meeting of the National Salary Update Commission. “The national collective agreement”, clarified Fidaldo, who is part of the Nuova Collaborazione, Assindatcolf, Adlc and Adld associations, “provides that in case of lack of agreement between the parties, as happened today, the 80% adjustment of the ‘Istat index in the with regard to minimum wages, which from January will increase by 9.2%, and 100% for food and accommodation or 11.5%».
In this way, the cost for a family can reach around 125 euros more per month with compensation for termination of functions, thirteenth month and vacation for the full-time caregiver who assists a person who is not self-sufficient. For a babysitter of a child under six years old (not full-time cohabitant) who works 40 hours a week, the costs are even higher, rising from a salary of 1,234 euros in 2022 to 1,348 in 2023 (114 euros plus salary). And for the employer, the total annual cost would go from €18,958 to €20,701 (plus €1,743 per year). Fortunately, the employers’ associations had proposed to stagger the increases due to cleaners, caretakers and nannies throughout the year, in order to limit the economic impact of the increases on family budgets already burdened with high bills and rising gasoline prices.
The fear is that this will increase undeclared work. Indeed, it may no longer be convenient for many families to regulate housework. Already today, a quarter of the three million undeclared workers in Italy are employed in domestic services. There are 781,000 domestic workers, caregivers and nannies, in addition to the 961,000 regular domestic workers registered by the INPS. Excluding this strong component of irregularity in the labor market, the incidence of undeclared work, which today in Italy is 12.9% of total employees, would decrease by three percentage points.
Source: IL Tempo
Roy Brown is a renowned economist and author at The Nation View. He has a deep understanding of the global economy and its intricacies. He writes about a wide range of economic topics, including monetary policy, fiscal policy, international trade, and labor markets.
