The 2025 renewal of the national collective agreement for domestic work represents a significant stage because it comes at a time of strong public debate on the issue of the minimum wage and reaffirms the value of collective bargaining as a tool to guarantee fair and sustainable wages.
A structural increase to enhance domestic work
The hypothesis of agreement for the renewal of the contract signed yesterday provides for an average monthly increase of 100 euro parameterised on the BS* level, with proportional remodulations on the other levels and on hourly wages. The amount will be distributed over the three-year period 2026-2028: 40 euros from January 2026, 30 euros from January 2027, 15 euros from January 2028 and 15 euros from September 2028. This is the first real structural increase since 2013, after years of simple ISTAT adjustments. The new contract maintains and strengthens the system of automatic revaluation of wages linked to the ISTAT index, bringing the coefficient from the previous 80% to 90% of the cost of living for Italian families (art. 38). This mechanism guarantees the protection of purchasing power even in periods of ultra contractual validity and aligns with the principle on which Law 26 September 2025, n. is based. 144 on the minimum wage, which entrusts collective bargaining with the task of adjusting wages to the cost of living. The decision to strengthen this mechanism demonstrates coherence and social responsibility of the signatory parties.
“This renewal – declares Alfredo Savia, President of Nuova Collaborazione – represents an act of social responsibility and coherence towards the country. In a moment of strong debate on the minimum wage, we have chosen to demonstrate with facts that collective bargaining can be the most effective tool for guaranteeing fair and sustainable wages. With this agreement we wanted to combine two fundamental needs: the economic and professional dignity of those who work in the homes of Italian families and the sustainability for those employers that every day, with civic sense, ensure care, assistance and support for the most vulnerable people”.
Bargaining and minimum wage: the domestic sector model
The domestic work contract stands as an advanced model in the panorama of national collective bargaining. He supports the line that the minimum wage should be determined by collective agreements and not imposed by law. The agreement thus strengthens the role of the social partners as qualified interlocutors of the legislator, in line with the parliamentary approach on the matter. The domestic sector demonstrates that bargaining can guarantee salary dignity and stability without resorting to rigid regulatory interventions which, in the case of families, would have entailed unsustainable economic efforts. In the case of theassistance to non-self-sufficient people, which takes place mainly in a cohabitation regime up to 54 hours a week, the minimum wage of 9.00 euros per hour it would have made the salaries of family assistants absolutely unsustainable for families, forced to work well beyond their earning capacity.
A contract in line with the law and with the social reality of the country
The Italian Parliament has chosen to entrust the social partners with the task of identifying, in a shared manner, the minimum wage, establishing some fundamental principles:
● national representation of the stipulating acronyms;
● ministerial control over non-renewals and the adequacy of salaries;
● periodic salary adjustment systems;
● support for employers who apply collective agreements correctly.
It is a line that Nuova Collaborazione, together with the other associations making up FIDALDO, has always supported: an approach that combines responsibility, protection and sustainability. The CCNL for domestic work, signed since 1974 by Nuova Collaborazione as the first signatory and today signed by FIDALDO (Italian Federation of Domestic Work Employers, made up of Nuova Collaborazione, Assindatcolf, Adlc and Adld) and Domina, together with the workers’ trade union organizations (Filcams-Cgil, Fisascat-Cisl, Uiltucs-Uil and Federcolf), was one of the first to provide a system of automatic adjustment of wages linked to the ISTAT index, under the supervision of the Ministry of Labour. A model that guaranteed stable, dignified and sustainable wageseven during periods of contractual void, avoiding economic trauma to the employer families during renewals. Today, with the new law on minimum wage, the social partners confirm their willingness to respond to new challenges with a sense of responsibility and a common vision, focusing on professional training, safety, healthcare and the fight against irregular work. Now it is up to parliament to implement structural measures to support employment in the domestic sector to combat the undeclared economy and make the cost of work less burdensome for families.
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