Italy real wages to drop 0.9% this year - OECD

Real wages in Italy will drop 0.9%

this year, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and

Development said Tuesday.

They will rise by just 0.2% next year, the OECD said.

In the first quarter of 2026, Italy's real wages "grew by 1.3%

year-on-year, mainly thanks to low inflation. However, they were

still 6.1% lower than in the first quarter of 2021: this is the

widest gap among major OECD economies," according to the OECD

Employment Outlook 2026 dedicated to Italy.

"The recent surge in energy prices," the Paris-based

organization warns, "is again pushing up inflation and pushing

down real wages. Assuming that the significant repercussions of

the Middle East conflict are limited to a relatively short

timeframe, real wages in Italy are projected to decline by 0.9%

in 2026 and increase by only 0.2% in 2027, due to the limited

number of contract renewals planned for 2027 and persistent

slack in the labour market."

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