Salaries and benefits to encourage staff to stay
by Luca Bianchi
Caring about Italia’s future means moving beyond the ‘winners and losers’ mindset. The North benefits from the skills coming from the South, yet is experiencing a growing brain drain abroad. Between 2002 and 2024, around 270,000 southern graduates under the age of 35 moved to the Centre and North, whilst 100,000 left the Centre and North for abroad, with a sharp increase in recent years.
Internal migration costs Southern Italy around 6.8 billion a year in public investment in education, but the bill spares no one: out-migration costs the Centre-North over 3 billion a year, a sign that not even the country’s most attractive region can retain its best talent in the face of international competition.
We need new solutions capable of changing the prospects and opportunities for young people – including those from abroad – who would like to build a life for themselves in our country. Let’s start with employment. The encouraging sign is that Southern Italy is showing vitality in exports, investment and start-ups, but the key issue to be resolved remains the pay gap of over 400 euros compared with European graduates, compounded by an equivalent North/South pay gap. But people do not decide to migrate solely because of low wages; it is just as crucial to have access to childcare, a healthcare system that works, high-quality schools, transport and networks that do not isolate people, and vibrant cultural and community spaces. In the absence of such services, staying becomes a financial burden and leaving an almost inevitable choice.
There are numerous policies in place – social security contribution relief, the ‘ZES Unica’ bonus, ‘Resto al Sud 2.0’ – but these mainly affect labour costs and businesses. Svimez proposes shifting the focus towards incentives to encourage people to ‘stay’ and to boost the region’s attractiveness. A European Graduate Staying Premium, i.e. a partial tax relief on the income of recent graduates employed within the first five years. This measure should be incorporated into the new European ‘right to stay’ strategy, alongside the strengthening of services and infrastructure. Framing the challenge at a European level allows us to draw on shared resources and tools, transforming a gap perceived as inevitable into a factor attracting investment and growth. If the 2028–2034 EU programming period is utilised in this way, the question will no longer be merely ‘how many more will leave’, but ‘how many can choose to stay or return’.
*Director-General of Svimez
