Bonus for hiring young people and women: implementing decrees for employer contribution waiver signed
The interministerial decrees with the criteria for accessing the incentives that are being examined by the control bodies are awaiting publication
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Key points
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With the signing of the two ministerial decrees (Lavoro-Mef) for the implementation of the bonuses to encourage the hiring of young people and women provided for in the Cohesion Decree, the countdown for the application of the contribution exemptions has begun. The two measures, which are being examined by the supervisory bodies, define the criteria and operating procedures for the total exemption from social security contributions for the hiring on a permanent basis, or the transformation of the contract into a stable employment relationship, of workers under 35 who have never been employed on a permanent basis and of women without regular paid employment.
For the Minister of Labour, Marina Calderone, 'with these decrees we are giving certainty and prospects to companies and workers, continuing along the road of encouraging quality, open-ended work, with a special focus on the situation in southern Italy'.
For the incentives to become operational, therefore, we await the opinion of the Court of Auditors and the subsequent publication of the two decrees in the Official Gazette or legal publicity on the Ministry of Labour's website. Let's take a detailed look at the timing of the implementing decrees, and what the Cohesion Decree (Law No. 95 of 4 July 2024, converting, with amendments, Decree-Law No. 60 of 7 May 2024) provides for
The 'double track' for the start of incentives
.A 'double track' is envisaged for both measures, which are financed by the 2021-2027 Youth, Women, Work Programme, since they are partly subject to the necessary EU authorisation: in essence, after discussion with the European Commission, the bonus request valid for the entire national territory has been separated from the 'special' one for the ZES areas (Abruzzo, Molise, Campania, Basilicata, Sicily, Apulia, Calabria and Sardinia), with two different starting dates for the use of the bonus. In the first case, private employers who have hired from 1 September 2024 onwards can access the maximum benefit of €500 per month for two years for permanent hirings of under-35s (youth bonus) and €650 for women who have been unemployed for more than 24 months (women's bonus), wherever they reside in Italy.
In the second case, i.e. for contracts in the Special Economic Zone, which take advantage of more favourable conditions, the contribution exemption instead follows the European discipline that provides for the possibility of applying after the Commission's Authorisation (31 January 2025). For the indefinite hiring of female disadvantaged workers, including within the single Special Economic Zone for the Mezzogiorno, who have been unemployed for at least six months, private employers are granted, for a maximum of two years, exemption from the payment of 100 per cent of their social security contributions (excluding premiums and contributions due to INAIL) up to EUR 650 per month. The second case concerns private employers who hire young people who, on the date of the incentivised hiring, are under 35 years of age in an office or production unit located in the Single Zones for the South of Italy: they are granted exemption from 100% of their social security contributions (excluding premiums and contributions due to Inail) up to a maximum of EUR 650 per month for each worker.
