The judgment of the European Union Court of Justice on November 11^th, 2025 (Grand Chamber, Case C-19/23) clarifies room for EU action in the area of salaries, where the Treaties set particularly careful limits.

The EU approach to "minimum wage"

Denmark, supported by Sweden, challenged EU Directive 2022/2041 on adequate minimum wages, raising a specific concern: even without setting an EU-wide threshold, the Directive could still significantly affect how much freedom Member States have when shaping pay-related decisions.

The Court upheld the Directive as a whole, taking into account that it aimed at promoting fair working conditions without directly determining wage levels which currently remains the decision of each Member State. However, it did intervene in a targeted way on the most critical points. It removed from Article 5 the more rigid provisions, which risked turning a set of goals and reference tools into guidance that was, in practice, binding for each Member State when assessing “adequacy”. The result is that the EU may require Member States to put in place assessment procedures, indicators and monitoring activities; it cannot, however, impose a uniform method that, in its effects, ends up setting the level of minimum wages.

The Italian situation

For Italy, among the countri...