Given that the regulation of minimum wages is a fundamental mechanism in the functioning of the labour market, it should be reiterated that in Italy, as is well known, this function has historically been performed by national collective agreements.

Confindustria considers it appropriate that this regulation remains in the hands of the collective bargainingfor several reasons, even if the indiscriminate proliferation of collective agreements signed by associations of dubious representativeness, makes it imperative that legal provisions be introduced to identify the relevant collective agreementfor each sector to be signed by effectively representative contractual agents.

Confindustria, however, considers it necessary to emphasise that, in any case, the real problem of respecting an adequate minimum wage does not depend on the source that determines its measure. The real problem, at least in Italy, seems to be that of instruments to guarantee effective compliance with the minimum wage levelrather than that of the source (law or collective agreement), which determines the measure. 

In this sense, the introduction of a legal minimum wage would not, in itself, solve the problem of adjust lower wages.