The INPS data just published on the ISEE 2025 Observatory must be read carefully, because beyond the national figures there is a data that directly concerns Calabria and which as a union we cannot archive as simple statistics. The average national ISEE value stands at 17,639 euros. Calabria records the lowest value in all of Italy: 13,141 euros. Trentino Alto Adige, at the other extreme, exceeds 23,000 euros. Ten thousand euros gap between the richest region and ours. It is not a cyclical gap, it is a structural fracture. This is what Vitaliano Papillo, provincial secretary of Cisal Vibo, states in a note.
But the data that should question us most is another: 43% of all ISEE declarations presented in Italy in 2025 come from the South and the Islands. In absolute terms it means that almost half of the Italian families who turn to the State to access bonuses, benefits and welfare are southern, compared to a population that represents around a third of the national total. It’s not welfare: it’s the reflection of a job market that doesn’t work.
What do these numbers tell us on the trade union level? Three specific things.
The first: the salary is not enough. A low ISEE does not just mean low income – it means involuntary part-time work, non-continuous seasonal work, undeclared work that is not declared and does not produce rights. The union must be more present in supply chains where the undeclared economy is structural: agriculture, tourism, personal services. Sectors that are important in Calabria and where bargaining is still too weak.
The second: welfare does not compensate for absent work. Increasing ISEE declarations is not a positive sign – it is the snapshot of a territory that increasingly resorts to support tools because stable, regular and well-paid work is lacking. The union cannot limit itself to orienting workers towards INPS benefits: it must fight to ensure that those benefits become less necessary.
The third: territorial bargaining is the answer. The wage gap between South and North cannot be resolved by moving workers, but by creating the conditions – contractual, fiscal, infrastructural – so that working in Calabria is economically sustainable. CISAL Calabria is committed on this front: second level agreements in local supply chains, legality protocols in companies that operate with public funds, concrete actions against contractual dumping which penalizes those who respect the rules. The ISEE is a mirror. What Calabria shows us in 2025 is a territory that needs not more assistance, but more dignified work.