The study

Employee benefits: the public sector spends 90 per cent less than the private sector

Key issues include supplementary healthcare, remote working and psychological support

by Davide Madeddu

8 July 2026

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3' min read

Translated by AI

Versione italiana

Key points

The difference between the public and private sectors
Supplementary healthcare and services
Remote working and the contract

3' min read

Translated by AI

Versione italiana

The public sector spends 90 per cent less on welfare than the private sector. Key issues include supplementary healthcare, remote working and psychological support. Specifically, the proportion of expenditure allocated to welfare by the public sector stands at around 0.11 per cent. In the private sector, this figure reaches 1–2 per cent: a structural gap of more than tenfold.

This is the finding of a study carried out by Bigda – a consultancy firm offering advanced data analysis, analytics and market research services using big data and artificial intelligence technologies – on behalf of FLP, the trade union for public sector workers and civil servants, to assess the state of welfare within the public administration.

The difference between the public and private sectors

A comparison of the figures between the public and private sectors reveals a significant difference. “The public sector has 3.7 million workers and spends around 90 per cent less on welfare than the private sector,” the report points out. Not only that: the tax relief ceiling in the public sector is capped at 800 euros, whilst in the private sector it rises to 5,000. This means that a public-sector employee can receive a maximum of 800 euros net under the tax relief scheme, compared with 5,000 euros for a private-sector worker.”

Supplementary healthcare and services

Another issue concerns supplementary healthcare, which is widespread in the private sector but absent from the public sector.

“If we look at flexible benefits – that is, the goods and services that employers make available to staff in addition to their salary, allowing them to choose those best suited to their needs,” the study continues, “these are rare in the public sector, whilst they feature in the contracts of around 50 per cent of the country’s large companies.” The same applies to mental and psychological support, yet “the mental wellbeing of public sector employees is an issue with well-documented roots and a clear contractual gap compared with the private sector”. The same applies to pension schemes, where participation among private-sector workers reaches 50 per cent, compared with a maximum of 23–24 per cent in the public sector.

Remote working and the contract

One of the issues that is particularly close to people’s hearts is that of remote working. “If we compare the public and private sectors on this issue, it is clear that in the latter it is already enshrined in employment contracts as a standard benefit, whereas in the public administration it is still perceived as a revocable concession.” The research reveals a consistent picture across all three aspects: welfare in the public administration lags structurally behind that in the private sector; workers need it; and the public debate has yet to recognise this. “The data confirm what the FLP has been highlighting for years,” says Marco Carlomagno, FLP national secretary, “welfare in the public administration is the great absentee from public sector labour policies. The stark figures from the research, which unequivocally highlight the gap between the public and private sectors, demonstrate that investment is needed in this area, overcoming the regulatory constraints that hinder its implementation, and allowing administrations to allocate to this important area not only part of the staff funds under decentralised collective bargaining, but above all resources available in the budgets – those set aside and not utilised.”