Unlock wages, a new sliding scale is needed
The proposal of Avs
Reintroduce a mechanism that annually realigns salaries with inflation, calculating the increase based on forecasts.
Forty years have passed since the abolition of the "escalator " and thirty-two years since the so-called "Ciampi Protocol." Yet, Italian wages have remained stagnant, like a faded snapshot of a bygone era. Italy is at a standstill, but prices are rising: gasoline, rent, flights, bread, mortgages. Everything is rising—except wages. This is also why, after the battles over the legal minimum wage and the reduction of working hours for equal pay, the Green Left Alliance is presenting a proposal to the Chamber of Deputies that breaks the silence, restores dignity, and calls things by their name: "Unblock Salaries ": a right, not a favor.
The proposal is not a utopia, but a principle of fairness: if life costs more, wages must adjust. We want to reintroduce a mechanism that annually realigns wages with inflation, calculating the increase based on future forecasts and past actual data. The Council of Ministers will do this by decree, because we can no longer wait for miracles or the " invisible hand" of the market. What if contracts aren't renewed? Then the adjustment is raised by 50%, thus taking the rent of waiting and the blackmail of employers off the table. The right to a living wage cannot be subject to the whims of the speculative economy. Pensions, benefits, and subsidies are adjusted—even if timidly. Wages are not. And this injustice is costly: since 2019, Italian families have lost 11.5% of their purchasing power. It's as if a thousand euros earned per month had become 890. The worst result in the G20.
To those who say this proposal will "raise inflation ," we respond with facts. Inflation is not caused by wage increases, but by speculation—especially energy speculation. Workers are not the problem, they are the solution. Increasing purchasing power stimulates consumption, boosts the economy, and strengthens the internal market. Sblocca Stipendi is our way of saying no to the normalization of precarious employment, to the rhetoric of unreturnable sacrifice. It is a political proposal that speaks to the living flesh of the country, to its children and mothers, to invisible workers and those tired of being blackmailed. It is not just a law: it is a new awareness.
l'Unità
