{"id":21202,"date":"2023-04-24T09:12:38","date_gmt":"2023-04-24T09:12:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/italy-plans-looser-rules\/"},"modified":"2023-04-24T09:14:24","modified_gmt":"2023-04-24T09:14:24","slug":"italy-plans-looser-rules","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/italy-plans-looser-rules\/","title":{"rendered":"Italy plans looser rules on short-term jobs, tax cuts on wages"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Giuseppe Fonte<\/p>\n

ROME (Reuters) – Italy plans contested legislation that will make it easier for firms to hire workers on short-term contracts, as part of a set of measures aimed at boosting jobs and families’ purchasing power, including tax cuts for middle- and low- income workers. <\/p>\n

Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has convened a cabinet meeting to approve the package on May 1, International Workers’ Day.<\/p>\n

Government officials said some 3.4 billion euros ($3.73 billion) would go to reduce this year the so-called tax wedge, the difference between the salary an employer pays and what a worker takes home, with the benefit going to employees with an annual income of up to 35,000 euros.<\/p>\n

The Treasury will fund the scheme by marginally raising the 2023 budget deficit to 4.5% of gross domestic product (GDP) from 4.4% under current trends.<\/p>\n

Rome also intends to soften rules limiting job contracts of between 12 and 24 months and abolish from Jan 1, 2024 a “citizens’ wage” poverty relief scheme introduced in 2019, under a draft seen by Reuters.<\/p>\n

“The package cuts anti-poverty resources and expands precarious work. Approving it on May 1 is a provocation,” opposition Democratic party lawmaker Antonio Misiani said.<\/p>\n

The government says in the draft that more flexibility allows firms to adapt to the uncertainties of the market, while critics say the proliferation of short-term contracts increases job insecurity and makes people anxious about the future.<\/p>\n

Meloni plans new welfare programmes at a cost for taxpayers of 7.7 billion euros in 2024, around 12% less than the 8.8 billion earmarked for the citizen wage scheme.<\/p>\n

Poor people aged between 18 and 59 will be able to apply for 350 euros per month for no more than 12 months.<\/p>\n

The citizens’ wage scheme provides an average of around 550 euros per family and has no expiry date provided recipients do not refuse job offers.<\/p>\n

Meloni wants to replace the scheme to force able-bodied people to look for work.<\/p>\n

Needy families comprising disabled people, minors or people aged at least 60 will be eligible for more than 500 euros for a maximum of 30 months.<\/p>\n

A further tax break valid until December is designed to encourage entrepreneurs to hire young people who are neither working nor studying.<\/p>\n

OECD data shows that 26% of Italians aged 15 to 29 in 2021 were in a category known as NEET — Not in Education, Employment or Training — far higher than the European Union average.<\/p>\n

($1 = 0.9114 euros)<\/p>\n

\n

(Editing by Gavin Jones)<\/p>\n

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By Giuseppe Fonte ROME (Reuters) – Italy plans contested legislation that will make it easier for firms to hire workers on short-term contracts, as part of a set of measures aimed at boosting jobs and families’ purchasing power, including tax cuts for middle- and low- income workers. Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has convened a cabinet […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":21203,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1216],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21202","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-u-s-economy"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-content\/uploads\/Reuters_Direct_Media\/USOnlineReportEconomy\/tagreuters.com2023binary_LYNXMPEJ3N08R-VIEWIMAGE.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21202","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21202"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21202\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21204,"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21202\/revisions\/21204"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21203"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21202"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21202"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21202"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}