Minimum wage, Tridico: "It would have a strong impact on finances and workers

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January 11, 2021 The introduction of the minimum wage has numerous benefits, including for the state.

This was stated by the president of INPS, Pasquale Tridico, in the hearing in the Senate in the EU policy commission.

In particular, for public finance there would be greater resources (more contributions, personal income tax, additional and fewer allowances from the household side, more contributions and less IRES-IRPEF from the business side) for 1.5 billion.

"The higher revenue - said Tridico - could finance reliefs for companies in the transition phase, for example the tax exemption of part or all of Naspi (New Social Insurance for Employment, a monthly unemployment allowance paid by the company). Other savings would come from the reduction in spending on family allowances and citizenship income. The minimum wage would then have distributive effects, with the reduction of the working poor and could reduce the gender gap since they are more affected at the lower wage thresholds. women".

According to Tridico, the introduction of the minimum wage would have zero employment effects, but benefits on quality of life, efficiency in the workplace and well-being.

The INPS president cited a 2019 study according to which an increase of 1 dollar in the minimum wage results in a reduction of between 3.4% and 5.9% in the suicide rate in the age group 18 -64 (among non-graduates).

"Following a trend of Keynesian economic research, in advanced economies, higher wages, not lower wages - explained the INPS president - could increase productivity, because they would act as a stimulus for capital intensive investments, would trigger the distributional levers of growth through the expansion of aggregate demand, would increase the engagement and efficiency of workers in the workplace as, according to the efficiency wage theory, low wages are often accompanied by insecurity and poor incentives for employees. 'introduction of a minimum wage - he specified - would move approximately 4-5 billion euros to the workforce in aggregate (depending on the choice of the amount) and could therefore generate a positive macroeconomic impact.