Average Annual Salary in Italy (2024)
Average annual wages in Italy from 1990 to 2024, expressed in constant 2024 USD at purchasing power parity. At $51,019 in 2024, Italy sits approximately 17% below the OECD average of $61,147 — and real wages have barely changed from the 1990 level of $51,863. Source: OECD Average Annual Wages dataset.
Data
| Year | Avg. Annual Wage (USD PPP) | YoY Change |
|---|---|---|
| 1990 | 51,863 | — |
| 1991 | 52,298 | +0.8% |
| 1992 | 52,248 | -0.1% |
| 1993 | 51,443 | -1.5% |
| 1994 | 50,777 | -1.3% |
| 1995 | 49,665 | -2.2% |
| 1996 | 50,057 | +0.8% |
| 1997 | 51,495 | +2.9% |
| 1998 | 51,659 | +0.3% |
| 1999 | 52,247 | +1.1% |
| 2000 | 52,237 | 0% |
| 2001 | 52,604 | +0.7% |
| 2002 | 52,231 | -0.7% |
| 2003 | 52,093 | -0.3% |
| 2004 | 53,083 | +1.9% |
| 2005 | 53,805 | +1.4% |
| 2006 | 54,145 | +0.6% |
| 2007 | 54,117 | 0% |
| 2008 | 54,045 | -0.1% |
| 2009 | 54,459 | +0.8% |
| 2010 | 54,924 | +0.9% |
| 2011 | 54,048 | -1.6% |
| 2012 | 52,332 | -3.2% |
| 2013 | 52,504 | +0.3% |
| 2014 | 52,708 | +0.4% |
| 2015 | 53,164 | +0.9% |
| 2016 | 53,589 | +0.8% |
| 2017 | 53,246 | -0.6% |
| 2018 | 53,307 | +0.1% |
| 2019 | 53,572 | +0.5% |
| 2020 | 51,016 | -4.8% |
| 2021 | 53,317 | +4.5% |
| 2022 | 51,950 | -2.6% |
| 2023 | 50,514 | -2.8% |
| 2024 | 51,019 | +1% |
About this Dataset
In 2024, Italy's average annual salary stood at $51,019 in constant 2024 USD, adjusted for purchasing power parity. That is approximately 17% below the OECD-wide average of $61,147. Real wages in 2024 are essentially unchanged from the 1990 figure of $51,863 — 34 years without real gains. The figure covers mean gross wages for a full-time, full-year equivalent employee across the total economy, compiled by the OECD Centre for Employment, Labour and Social Affairs from national accounts and labour force surveys.
Italy's 2024 average wage of $51,019 is $10,128 below the OECD average of $61,147. Real wages over the past decade fell 3.2%, from $52,708 in 2014 to $51,019 in 2024. For labour cost modelling, total employer cost in Italy typically runs 30–40% above the gross wage once social security and INPS contributions are included.
The dataset covers Italy from 1990 to 2024 at annual frequency. Key methodological notes:
- Unit: Constant 2024 US dollars, adjusted for purchasing power parity using OECD deflators
- Definition: Mean gross annual wage of full-time, full-year equivalent employees, total economy
- Coverage: 1990–2024, annual frequency, Italy (ISO-3: ITA)
- Measure code: WG (average wage) with USD_PPP unit measure, series AV_AN_WAGE
- Publisher: OECD Centre for Employment, Labour and Social Affairs (ELS.SAE)
Italy's wage stagnation is the defining feature of this series. From 1990 ($51,863) to 2024 ($51,019), real wages moved sideways for 34 years — a pattern found in few other OECD economies of comparable size. The series peaked in 2010 at $54,924, following a period of modest growth in the mid-2000s, then declined through the eurozone debt crisis years. By 2014, wages had fallen to $52,708, a 4.0% real contraction from peak. A partial recovery between 2015 and 2019 brought wages back to $53,572, but that high was already well below the 2010 ceiling.
Total factor productivity growth stalled after euro adoption in 1999, partly because competitive pressure from lower-cost producers squeezed the manufacturing SME sector that had anchored Italian wage growth in the 1970s and 1980s. Multi-year national collective bargaining agreements (CCNL) set wages sector-wide and are typically renegotiated every three years, leaving limited room for firm-level productivity gains to feed through to pay. A high share of employment in low-productivity services — accommodation, food, retail — also weighs on the aggregate mean.
The COVID-19 shock in 2020 was unusually severe for Italy. Average wages fell 4.8%, from $53,572 to $51,016, the largest annual decline in the 35-year record. Italy was among the first European economies hit by the pandemic, and its cassa integrazione (wage support) schemes (which prevented mass layoffs) coincided with collapsed hours across hospitality, manufacturing, and retail. The 2021 recovery (+4.5%, to $53,317) reflected both a genuine rebound in activity and base effects. The recovery proved short-lived: inflation accelerated sharply through 2022 and 2023 faster than Italy's slow-moving collective bargaining could respond. Average wages dropped 2.6% in 2022 (to $51,950) and a further 2.8% in 2023 (to $50,514) in real terms. The 2024 reading of $51,019 (+1.0%) suggests nominal gains are beginning to catch up with price levels, but only modestly.
Italy's structural wage gap relative to the OECD average has widened significantly since 1999. Firms benchmarking labour costs for Italian manufacturing or shared service operations should treat the OECD mean as an indicator of full-time equivalent cost rather than typical take-home pay across the workforce, since Italy's informal economy, irregular contracts, and a relatively high share of part-time work in certain sectors can make average wages a less precise guide to actual payroll planning than in some northern European peers.