Dl milleproroghe: the extension of the youth and women’s bonuses is cancelled, but the measures are in the manoeuvre

The one-year extension of the bonus for young people under 35 and the bonus for women, the incentives to encourage the employment of young people and women in disadvantaged conditions, is cancelled. In fact, the text of the Milleproroghe decree published in the Official Journal does not contain the one-year postponement of the timeframe for benefiting from the bonuses, initially envisaged in a draft of the measure. Also skipped – also foreseen in the previous text but not in this one – are the extension of the bonus for employment development for the ZES for Southern Italy and the incentives for self-employment in strategic sectors for the development of new technologies and for the digital and ecological transition.

The manoeuvre that has just been definitively approved envisages solutions in this regard, i.e. a partial tax exemption for employers who hire on open-ended contracts (or transform fixed-term contracts) in 2026, with priority for young people, disadvantaged women, and ZES areas. But while the measure in the Milleproroghe, eventually skipped, was financed by European funds, the one in the manoeuvre is supported by national funds.

The bonus for young people under 35

The bonus for young people under 35, introduced by the Cohesion Decree of 2024, consists of a total exemption for employers from paying social security contributions for a maximum of 24 months, with a ceiling of EUR 500 per month. The incentive concerns hirings or transformations into stable contracts until 31 December 2025 for young people under 35 who have never been employed on a permanent basis during their working life.

Support for women

The women’s bonus is also a total exemption from the payment of employers’ social security contributions, for a maximum of 24 months, for open-ended hirings of disadvantaged female workers. Again, without extension, the benefit concerns hirings made up to 31 December.

The Zes bonus

Without an extension, the Bonus Zes, the incentive aimed at companies in southern Italy that hire workers over 35 years of age, who have been unemployed for a long time, and the incentive for self-employment, an incentive aimed at unemployed persons under 35 years of age who start a business in Italy operating in strategic sectors for the development of new technologies and the digital and ecological transition, will also end with the end of 2025.