Salaries, Cagliari at the top of the Southern Italian charts, are eroding as inflation erodes them, and purchasing power declines.
The other Sardinian provinces lag behind. The average wage on the island is €30,314, an increase of 18.6% since 2015; however, inflation has been recorded at 23.3% over the same period.
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Wages are growing, but inflation is eroding them and Italians' purchasing power is decreasing .
This is what emerges from the 2026 edition of the Geography Index Report from the JobPricing observatory.
Sardinia, with an average annual wage (APR) of €30,314, ranks fifteenth among Italian regions in the ranking, led by Lombardy , which has an average of €36,331, followed by Lazio (€35,222), Liguria (€34,872), Trentino-Alto Adige (€34,522), and Emilia-Romagna (€34,295). At the bottom of the list are Basilicata (€27,767), Calabria (€29,146), and Sicily (€29,482).
In 2015, the RGA on the island was 25,569 euros, representing an 18.6% growth, completely eroded by inflation, which since 2015 has seen a general increase in prices in Sardinia of 23.3%. Conclusion: Sardinians have lost purchasing power, the difference is 4.8% .
Umbria (-15.1%) recorded the greatest loss of purchasing power, followed by Veneto (-13.9%), Sicily (-13.1%), and Trentino-Alto Adige (-12.3%). Lombardy (-8.9%) and Emilia-Romagna (-10.7%), despite ranking among the highest in terms of wages, also recorded losses equal to or greater than the national average. Marche (+0.7%) and Molise (+2.8%) were the only regions with a non-negative balance and, indeed, the only ones where wages actually increased relative to the cost of living .
Nationally, the RGA is 33,798 euros, +14.2% compared to 2015. With inflation at 22.6%, Italians have lost 8.4% of their purchasing power.
As for provincial data , Cagliari, 42nd, is the leading province in Southern Italy for RGA, at €32,095 . The other Sardinian provinces are lagging behind: Nuoro is 93rd (€28,651), Oristano is 94th (€28,637), South Sardinia is 97th (€28,495), and finally Sassari is fifth to last, in 103rd place with a RGA of €27,723 . Apart from Nuoro, which gained four places, all the other Sardinian provinces have lost ground in the last year.
But the most interesting data, even at the provincial level, concerns the loss of purchasing power. Even in Cagliari, wages are being eroded by rising prices: they have grown by 16.3% since 2015, but inflation has been 22.8% over the same period .
While Milan is the province with the highest wages (€40,055), ahead of Trieste, Bolzano, Rome, and Bologna, in a ranking dominated by the North (15 provinces from Emilia Romagna and Lombardy in the top 23), the last three places are occupied by Matera, Crotone, and Ragusa.
But the picture reverses when we look at purchasing power: out of a sample of 40 provinces analyzed, Campobasso is the only one to record a significant positive balance over the decade, with a +3.5% . By contrast, Milan saw a sharp -9.9% in purchasing power on paychecks over ten years; Bologna -10.6%; Genoa -15.7%; and Bolzano -22.8%.
