Quick answer: PayScale puts the average Registered Nurse base salary in Italy at €29,661 a year, with a typical range of €20,000–€41,000, and the FNOPI nursing federation report puts the national average at €32,400 a year. Entry-level public-sector nurses typically net about €1,450–€1,550 a month. This guide keeps survey averages, federation averages, and public-sector pay separate, because they measure different things.
Nurse Salary in Italy — Pay by Source, Sector and Experience
Nurse Salary in Italy pay is low by western European standards, and that is the first fact any job offer has to be read against. Gross figures sit far below German or Swiss pay, and the public-sector contract fixes base pay nationally while the cost of living swings sharply between Milan and a small southern town.
All figures in this Nurse Salary in Italy guide are gross annual salaries in euros, before social security and income tax, unless explicitly labelled net or total compensation. Public-sector pay is usually quoted monthly and paid in 13 instalments, with a thirteenth-month payment (tredicesima) at Christmas. The figures are the latest 2026 benchmarks; anything about 2027 is outlook only.
How this guide is organised: PayScale, the FNOPI average, why Glassdoor is not used, the CCNL Sanità contract, a worked net-pay example, the cost of living, demand, the foreign-nurse route, and offer advice.
PayScale — The Headline Survey Average — Nurse Salary in Italy
The headline survey figure for this Nurse Salary in Italy guide comes from PayScale: an average Registered Nurse base salary of €29,661 a year in 2026, with a base range of €20,000–€41,000 and total pay of €20,000–€63,000 including bonus and overtime. PayScale shows no headline sample size, so read €29,661 as indicative.
| Measure (PayScale, Registered Nurse, Italy, 2026) — Nurse Salary in Italy | Salary |
|---|---|
| Average base salary | €29,661 a year |
| Base salary range (10th–90th percentile) | €20,000–€41,000 |
| Total pay range (incl. bonus and overtime) | €20,000–€63,000 |
| Entry-level total compensation (under 1 year, 7 salaries) | €27,500 a year |
| Early-career total compensation (1–4 years, 17 salaries) | €29,479 a year |
PayScale's experience bands are total compensation, including bonus and overtime, and they rest on tiny samples: entry-level pay averages €27,500 from only 7 salaries, and early-career pay averages €29,479 from 17 salaries. Mid- and late-career bands were not verifiable and are not invented here. Emergency Room nurses average €30,000 and Operating Room nurses €27,469: neither specialism commands a large premium.
FNOPI — The Federation Average and the Regional Spread — Nurse Salary in Italy
The second anchor for this Nurse Salary in Italy guide is the nursing federation itself. The FNOPI report puts the average salary of a nurse in Italy at €32,400 a year, against a European average of €39,800. That sits about €2,700 above PayScale's €29,661, as expected from different samples.
The same FNOPI reporting shows a wide regional spread, even though the national contract sets a uniform base. Trentino-Alto Adige averages €37,204 a year, Emilia-Romagna about €35,000, while Molise stops at €26,186 and Campania and Calabria average below €30,000. The spread comes from seniority, allowances, overtime, and employer mix, not from a regional base-pay scale.
Glassdoor — Why It Is Not the Headline Source — Nurse Salary in Italy
Glassdoor is deliberately not used as a headline source in this Nurse Salary in Italy guide, because its Italy figures are broken in a way that cannot be repaired by averaging. Its Italy Registered Nurse page reports an average of €1,792 a year, based on 14 salaries as of November 2026. Those are plainly monthly figures mislabelled as annual: €1,792 a month is plausible, €1,792 a year is not a salary at all. The Rome page repeats the fault at €2,108 a year from 5 salaries, so both are excluded.
Public Sector — The CCNL Sanità Contract — Nurse Salary in Italy
The strongest structural fact in this Nurse Salary in Italy guide is the contract. Nearly all nurses in Italy's public health system (Servizio Sanitario Nazionale, SSN) are paid under the CCNL Sanità national collective agreement, which sets a uniform base salary structure across the whole country. Unlike the UK's regional weighting system, Italy's base pay does not officially vary by city or region.
Entry-level net pay by employer type, from a guide built on CCNL Sanità tabellare pay plus standard allowances, is the most usable public-sector benchmark in this Nurse Salary in Italy guide. Public hospital (SSN) nurses at entry level typically net €1,450–€1,550 a month, private hospitals and clinics €1,300–€1,450, and RSA elder-care homes €1,300–€1,500 depending on the operator.
| Employer type (entry level, net monthly) — Nurse Salary in Italy | Typical net pay |
|---|---|
| Public hospital (SSN) | €1,450–€1,550 a month |
| Private hospital or clinic | €1,300–€1,450 a month |
| RSA / elder care | €1,300–€1,500 a month |
Allowances are where take-home pay moves above the base. The contract includes a tredicesima, a full extra month's pay, so annual pay is spread over 13 instalments. Reported allowances include roughly €10 per night, around €3 an hour extra for shift work, and about €305 a month for emergency department roles. Overtime is capped at 180–250 hours a year, with premiums of 15% daytime, 30% for holiday or night work, and 50% for night work on a holiday; a 2026 measure taxes SSN overtime at a flat 5%, and additional shifts (prestazioni aggiuntive) pay €50 gross an hour.
The contract itself is moving. A union summary of the CCNL Sanità 2025–2027 hypothesis signed on 29 July 2026 puts the increase for nurses and midwives at €101.10 a month in tabular pay plus a €93.35 allowance, totalling €194.45 a month gross in 2026 and €223.55 a month gross in 2027. Those figures are quoted only as a union summary of the hypothesis; the 2027 figure is outlook only.
What €35,000 Gross Means in Net Pay — Nurse Salary in Italy
Net example for this Nurse Salary in Italy guide, labelled as a third-party worked illustration, not the site calculator's output: a nurse on €35,000 gross a year pays about €3,080 in INPS contributions at the public-sector rate of 8.80% and about €4,846 in IRPEF after the standard employment deduction, leaving about €27,074 net a year, or €2,256 a month over 12 payments — about €2,083 a month over the 13 instalments of a public-sector contract. There is no Italy salary calculator on this site yet.
| €35,000 gross breakdown (third-party worked illustration) — Nurse Salary in Italy | Amount |
|---|---|
| Gross salary | €35,000 a year |
| INPS contribution (8.80%, public sector) | −€3,080 |
| Taxable income | €31,920 |
| IRPEF (after standard employment deduction) | −€4,846 |
| Net after tax | €27,074 a year |
| Net per month over 12 payments | €2,256 |
| Net per month over 13 payments | About €2,083 |
Two tax facts sit behind that illustration in this Nurse Salary in Italy guide. First, IRPEF was simplified to three brackets: 23% on taxable income up to €28,000, 33% from €28,001 to €50,000, and 43% above €50,000, with the middle rate cut from 35% to 33% by the 2026 Budget Law, saving middle-income earners up to €440 a year. The bands are marginal. Second, employee INPS is about 9.19% for most private-sector employees, plus 1% above €56,224, against the 8.80% public-sector health rate used above.
Regional and municipal surtaxes sit on top of national IRPEF and are the one part of net pay that varies by place. Regional surtax runs from 1.23% to 3.33%, and municipalities can add up to about 0.9%. Lazio and Campania charge the maximum 3.33%, Lombardia a progressive 1.23–1.74%, and Trentino-Alto Adige the minimum 1.23%. The gap between the highest- and lowest-surtax regions is roughly €500–€700 a year.
Cost of Living in Milan and Rome — Nurse Salary in Italy
A Nurse Salary in Italy of €29,661 gross buys very different lives in different cities. Numbeo data updated in October 2026 puts a single person's monthly costs excluding rent at about €890, with rent on top. A one-bedroom flat in the city centre averages about €1,530 a month in Milan and about €1,085 a month in Rome, against a national average of about €720. An entry-level nurse netting €1,450–€1,550 a month cannot cover a central Milan one-bedroom alone; the same pay stretches much further in the south.
Demand and Shortage — Nurse Salary in Italy
Italy is short of nurses by every measure in this Nurse Salary in Italy guide. The FNOPI report puts Italy at about 6.5 nurses per 1,000 inhabitants against a European average of 8.4, with roughly 65,000 nurses missing; other reporting of the same findings puts the shortfall at about 70,000, and one in three public-system nurses is reported to be considering leaving. That is a staffing-ratio shortfall, not a vacancy forecast.
The shortage is structural rather than cyclical. Applications for university nursing courses fell by about 10%, leaving roughly one applicant per available place in 2024, while retirements and outflow to the private sector or abroad continue, so new nurses are not projected to replace those leaving. Only 10 of 346 executives in public hospitals are nurses. This Nurse Salary in Italy guide quotes no 2027 pay figure as a published scale.
Working as a Foreign-Trained Nurse — Nurse Salary in Italy
Nursing is a regulated profession in Italy. A foreign-trained nurse must first obtain recognition of the qualification from the Italian Ministry of Health, which can issue a decree, require a compensatory measure, or reject the application; then register with the competent provincial OPI, passing its language and legal-provisions examination. For non-EU citizens, the decree generally lapses if the nurse does not register within two years. The former IPASVI colleges became Orders in 2018, so current guidance refers to OPI and FNOPI.
Using This Guide for a Job Offer — Nurse Salary in Italy
This Nurse Salary in Italy guide does not include a Glassdoor headline average (its Italy figures are monthly pay mislabelled as annual), a single national public-sector pay table (no official CCNL table was verified), a sourced net figure for the PayScale €29,661 average (none was found), or any published 2027 pay scale.
- Use this guide as a benchmark, not a verdict: compare your offer with the PayScale and FNOPI averages for the same sector, post, and region.
- Check what a net figure divides by: a monthly net over 12 payments is not the same as the same annual net over 13 instalments.
- Ask which allowances are included: night, shift, and emergency allowances add materially to take-home pay, and SSN overtime is taxed at a flat 5%.
- Price the city before you accept: a Milan rent can absorb an entry-level net salary on its own, while the same pay stretches much further in the south.
- Never compare a posting median with a scale figure: postings show what employers advertise, scales show what a post pays.
When you use the Nurse Salary in Italy figures for a job offer, match sector, post, and region before you negotiate. Judge a public post against the CCNL structure and the entry-level net range, and a private post against the survey band and the private net range.
Related Salary Calculators and Guides
Frequently Asked Questions — Nurse Salary in Italy
Sources — Nurse Salary in Italy
Survey averages: PayScale — Registered Nurse Salary in Italy (2026 page, average base €29,661), PayScale — Emergency Room Registered Nurse Salary in Italy (€30,000 average) and PayScale — Operating Room Registered Nurse Salary in Italy (€27,469 average). Glassdoor Italy page checked and excluded as broken: Glassdoor — Registered Nurse salaries in Italy (14 salaries, November 2026).
Federation average and shortage: FNOPI report via Latest News and Updates (May 2025) and Rome Times — FNOPI–Sant'Anna report. Public-sector pay and net illustration: Dynamic Health Staff — Italy Nurses Salary. Tax: TaxRavens — Italy Tax Brackets 2026, IRPEF 23–43%, INPS 9.19%. Cost of living: Movingto — Cost of Living in Italy, Numbeo data October 2026. Foreign-nurse route: GlobalScholarships — 5 Steps to Become a Nurse in Italy. Figures here are planning estimates, not salary guarantees; 2027 figures are outlook only.
Disclaimer: All figures on this page are survey and federation benchmarks for planning only. Actual pay depends on employer, region, experience, post and benefits. This guide is not a salary guarantee and does not replace the source surveys or a qualified adviser.