Employment incentives remain outside the Milleproroghe for now
The facilities provided for by the Cohesion Decree absent from the text in the Gazzetta. Stop due to technical reasons: they should reappear in the conversion law
Key points
The extension to 31 December of the bonuses for employment and self-employment provided for in the Relaunch Decree (Decree-Law 60/2024), already provided for in the draft of the Milleproroghe Decree (Decree-Law 200/2025) and then disappeared from the text published last 31 December in the Official Gazette (302/2025), will be reinstated with an amendment that was incorporated in the decree's conversion law.
The clarification
The clarification was provided yesterday by ministerial sources after the disappearance of the extension provision had created some concern in thebusiness world and was immediately reported by several press agencies. According to information, the measures aimed at the employment of young people, women and in special economic zones did not appear in the final text of Decree Law 60/2024 due to a technical issue, as the extension was linked to the resources allocated in the Budget Decree 2026, which had not yet been converted into law at the time of the approval of the Milleproroghe by the Council of Ministers. For this reason, an amendment to the conversion law will be made.
The facilities
It is recalled that the initial draft of the Milleproroghe provided for the postponement from 31 December 2025 to 31 December 2026 of the following facilities provided for in Decree Law 60/2024:
- incentives to self-employment in strategic sectors for the development of new technologies and for the digital and ecological transition, provided for in Article 21, paragraph 1, of the decree and consisting of 100% exemption from social security contributions (with a ceiling of EUR 800 per month and for a maximum of three years) in relation to new open-ended hirings of under-35s made by unemployed persons under 35 years of age who start a business in the national territory and in those strategic sectors from 1 July 2024 and until 31 December 2025;
- incentives to encourage youth employment provided for in Article 22, paragraph 1, of the decree and consisting of the total exemption from the payment of social security contributions with a ceiling of €500 per month (€650 in the ZES area) and for a maximum of 24 months at the expense of private employers for new permanent hirings and transformations from fixed-term employment carried out from 1 September 2024 to 31 December 2025 in favour of under-35s who have never been employed on an indefinite-term basis in their working lives;
- incentives to encourage the employment of disadvantaged female workers provided for by Article 23, paragraph 1, of the decree and consisting of a full exemption from social security contributions (with a ceiling of EUR 650 per month and a maximum for 24 months) to be paid by private employers who have hired on an indefinite-term basis by 31 December 2025 women who have not been regularly employed for at least 24 months, wherever they reside, or for at least 6 months in a single Zes or, again, disadvantaged for carrying out professions or work activities in economic sectors characterised by accentuated gender inequality;
- employment incentives to support the employment development of the Special Economic Zone for the Mezzogiorno (Zes) provided for by Article 24, paragraph 1, of the decree and consisting of a total exemption from social security contributions (with a ceiling of EUR 650 per month and for a maximum of 24 months) to be paid by private employers who, from 1 September 2024 and until 31 December 2025, hire non-executive personnel with an open-ended contract in a location in the Single Zes.
For all these incentives, as anticipated and once extended, paragraphs 153 to 155 of Law 199/2025 provided for refinancings of 154 million in 2026, as well as 400 million in 2027 and 271 million in 2028.
