Living in Italy · B1 · Work
by Alessio · teacher of Italian for foreigners, ITALS master’s in teaching Italian abroad (Ca’ Foscari University, Venice) and a master’s in teaching Italian as a second language (Giustino Fortunato University, Benevento)
The payslip (busta paga) is not just a piece of paper. It proves you work and that your employer is paying your contributions, and those two things are exactly what gets checked, at renewal if you’re not an EU citizen and at registration if you are.
What you’ll find here
In short. The contract must state the type (fixed-term or open-ended), the CCNL (sector collective agreement), the level, working hours and the probation period.
On the payslip, lordo is before tax and contributions, netto is what reaches your account; the gap is tax and contributions.
Work without a payslip. Cash work with no contract counts as nothing when it matters: no proof of income, no contributions on record. That’s true whether your employer is a stranger or a friend. If you suspect contributions are missing or underpaid, check with a patronato or a trade union (sindacato): it’s free.
| Italian | What it means |
|---|---|
| il contratto a tempo indeterminatofirst page | open-ended employment contract |
| il periodo di provain the contract | probation period |
| il CCNLstated in the contract | sector collective agreement |
| la busta pagagiven every month | payslip |
| il lordotop of the payslip | gross, before tax and contributions |
| il nettobottom of the payslip | net, what you actually receive |
| i contribution the payslip | social security contributions |
| le feriebalance shown on the payslip | paid holiday |
Fill in the gaps with the words from the table
If you are not an EU citizen and your permit is for employment, renewal means showing the contract, recent payslips and the CU. When a contract ends you don’t have to leave immediately: you can apply for permesso per attesa occupazione and return to a work permit if you find a new job within that period, but the application has to be made before the permit expires. If you are an EU citizen, no permit is involved, but the same documents prove the “worker” condition for iscrizione anagrafica: lose the job and lose the payslips, and the comune may question the registration you already have. In both cases, the paperwork is the point, not just the money.
If you invoice instead of receiving a payslip, the equivalent proof is the partita IVA, the annual tax return and the contributions paid to INPS through your own scheme. Two things catch people out. First, opening a partita IVA is not the same as having the right to stay: a non-EU citizen needs a permit that allows self-employment, and converting from employment to self-employment is a separate procedure. Second, contributions here are not deducted for you: you pay them yourself, and skipping them leaves the same hole in your record that undeclared work would.
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★★★★★(6)by Alessio, a teacher since 2018
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