Employer of Record in Italy - Hire without a local entity

Every month, employers file a UniEmens report with INPS, the national social security institute, by the end of the month after the pay period. Tax and contributions are paid by F24 on the 16th. Before day one, a UNILAV notice must be filed by midnight the day before the start date. One filing covers the job center, INPS, INAIL and the Labour Inspectorate. We file all of it for you.

INPS pays sick pay and maternity benefit, but the employer advances the money and offsets it in UniEmens. Maternity leave is 5 months at 80%, and many agreements top it up to 100%. Paternity leave is 10 working days at 100%. We handle the advances and the offsets.

Collective agreements and the main employment laws

Italy has no statutory minimum wage. Pay floors come from national collective agreements, roughly 900 to 990 of them, covering nearly all employees. Tech and office roles usually fall under the commerce and services agreement. Engineering and manufacturing use the metalworkers agreement. We pick the CCNL, assign the level and track the renewals that raise pay automatically. These are the points international employers most often miss:

• Dismissal needs written grounds: just cause, or a justified subjective or objective reason. Disciplinary cases follow a formal procedure under the Workers' Statute.
• For staff hired after 7 March 2015, unlawful dismissal normally costs an indemnity of 6 to 36 months' pay. Court rulings keep shifting the ranges.
• Resignations are valid only through the Ministry of Labour's online procedure. Since 2025, unjustified absence beyond the agreement's term can be treated as resignation.
• TFR is deferred severance of about 7% of pay a year, paid when the employee leaves.
• The Transparency Decree requires written information at hiring: level, pay, hours, notice and the CCNL that applies.

What a branch or an S.r.l. does not solve

Some companies set up an S.r.l. or register a branch. An S.r.l. needs €10,000 in share capital, with 25% paid in, plus notary fees and 2 to 4 weeks. A branch needs no capital, but the parent company stays fully liable. Either way, you still register with Agenzia delle Entrate, INPS and INAIL and run Italian payroll yourself. With our Employer of Record, we are the employer, so you need neither. If you later want your own entity, we scope the setup with you first.

What a hire in Italy costs

Senior software engineer on €70,000 a year, paid as 14 instalments of €5,000. Italian offers quote the full annual figure, so this includes the 13th and 14th salaries:

• Employer INPS contributions (about 30%, estimated for office roles in commerce): €21,000
• INAIL (about 0.4% for office roles): €280
• TFR accrual (6.91%): €4,837
• Fronted EOR fee: [Fronted fee] per employee per month. See our pricing page.
• Total: around €96,000 before our fee, about 37% on top of gross, plus insurance and any extra benefits.

Payroll and contracts are the easy part. What catches companies out is the collective agreement. It decides pay floors, leave, notice and probation, and it changes when the unions renew it. Add the 13th and 14th salaries, TFR as a deferred 7% liability and on-costs of 37 to 40%, and a budget built on 12 months of gross is wrong from day one.

Dismissal also needs written grounds and carries real litigation risk. Getting the CCNL and the level right at the start is far easier than fixing it later.