German Chancellor Olaf Scholz keeps the promise he made during the election campaign and approves the increase in the legal minimum wage , which has now also been approved by Parliament.

From 1 October it will rise from the current 9.82 euros to 12 euros per hour , with an intermediate step to 10.45 from July.

In Italy, on the other hand, it is a tug-of-war. For M5S it is a priority , for the Democratic Party a reform to be approved by the end of the legislature, but the center-right is blocking it and is preparing to block it in the Labor Committee in the Senate, where the process that continued in slow motion from 2018 was released a month ago.

The basis under which we cannot go down, is the proposal of Nunzia Catalfo, former Minister of Labor M5S, is nine euros net per hour , a guaranteed level now - INPS data - to about 4.5 million workers, not even a fifth of the total .

"It is a battle to be completed immediately - warns Conte -. I tell the other political forces: you have some observations to make, let's discuss. The law can be approved in a short time". Doing so "within this legislature would be ideal", otherwise the Democratic Party will present it "within the project for the next elections", clarifies Enrico Letta. Even the EU Commissioner for Economy Paolo Gentiloni defines the minimum wage as "indispensable". The Minister of Labor Andrea Orlando announces a table with the social partners on "poor work".

The CISL is opposed, which would lose its bargaining power, and the center-right is against it, ready to oppose the commission where the balance of the numbers is already precarious: "The minimum wage must not be a taboo but we must see how it is done", affirms the Minister of Economic Development Giancarlo Giorgetti. "We are against - explains the senator of Forza Italia Roberta Toffanin -. To guarantee greater purchasing power to workers , the tax wedge must be reduced and the Citizenship Income revised, which blocks the system".