Higher-paid female workers have an advantage over lower-earning ones. This is the paradox of economic support, introduced by the Meloni government in the latest budget law, designed to support the birth rate and especially large families, including bonuses for working mothers with at least two dependent children: Those working permanently, even part-time, in the public or private sector There is an exemption contribution for mothers. A few days ago, INPS published a circular highlighting the operation of the measure, which should start from this February, including any delays in January 2024.
How does it work? This year, women with at least two children (the minor child is under 10 years old) will be entitled to an exemption from social security premiums of 9.19%, up to a maximum of 3 thousand euros per year (250 euros per month). Women without a permanent employment contract are not eligible for the bonus, and all self-employed and insecure workers, as well as domestic workers, are excluded. You do not need to apply to receive the bonus; You simply inform your employer or INPS that you are eligible to receive this bonus and state the number of dependent children and their relevant tax codes in a self-declaration. At this point, the employer will be able to include the exemption request in the salary report. In this case, it is up to INPS to verify the existence of the requirement through checks to track the tax codes of dependent children.
Because mother’s bonus rewards those with higher salaries
Let’s start by saying that female workers with a gross salary of up to 35 thousand euros can already count on the tax wedge reduction, first introduced by the Draghi government and then approved by the Meloni government, and ensure that it is not cumulative. new bonus. CGIL metalworkers union Fiom simulated some examples. A working mother earning 700 euros a month can already benefit from a contribution exemption of 49 euros for everyone. In this case, the mother’s bonus will be 64 euros, but since 49 are already discounted, the additional discount will be 15.33 euros per month, regardless of the number of children.
So let’s consider the situation of a mother with a monthly salary of 2 thousand euros. The mother’s bonus will still be 183 euros per month, but considering that the deduction in the tax wedge already guarantees 120 euros, the additional “discount” becomes 63.8 euros. The last case examined is that of a mother earning 2,720 euros: given that the salary is more than 35 thousand euros gross per year, this employee is not entitled to a tax wedge deduction. Therefore, your mother’s bonus will be full, that is, 250 euros per month, which means a total of 3 thousand euros per year.
It’s kind of a mockery. “Paradoxically, middle-to-high-paid workers will benefit entirely from the bonus for mothers (3 thousand euros per year). Low-income women benefit from this bonus in a negligible, if at all, amount,” underlines Fiom.
How to calculate mother’s bonus
In detail, the mother’s bonus represents a contribution of 9.19% of the overall salary; This corresponds to the amount the worker must pay for the “IVS” contribution in the private sector and the “FAP” contribution in the public sector. The first is also called the “accident and old age” contribution for employed workers and is a pillar of social security in Italy: it is essentially a sum of money automatically deducted from the employee’s monthly salary and paid to the INPS. Fap is the abbreviation of “pension adjustment fund”, which indicates the anticipated payment source amount for the employee’s future pension on the payroll.
Technical details aside, the contribution exemption can go up to 250 euros per month (maximum three thousand euros per year) and is calculated based on salary. For mothers with at least three dependent children, the bonus is valid from January 1, 2024 to December 31, 2026. Conditions for accessing assistance include the age of the youngest child, who must be under 18 years of age. For trial purposes, this year the bonus is also given to working mothers who have two dependent children. In this case, the youngest must be under 10 years old. However, mothers with only one child, even if they are disabled, are excluded from the scope. In case of business relationships that begin or end within the month, the exemption threshold must be recalculated.
The Meloni government allocated 450 million euros for this incentive. In the technical report on the 2024 budget law, it is estimated that approximately 800 thousand women will be affected by the measure. In the private sector, the number of working mothers with two children, one under the age of 10, is around 571 thousand, and the number of mothers with three or more children, one of whom is underage, is around 111 thousand. To these, mothers working in the public sector, which correspond to one fifth of mothers working in the private sector, should also be added.
Source: Today IT

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.