Budget table shows the payout

Italy's 2027 budget law could pay magistrates almost 100,000 euros each on average, according to Il Sole 24 Ore, which reconstructed the figures from the Documento programmatico di bilancio sent to Brussels. The planning table contains a 1.9 billion euro 'fondo sentenze' for costs arising from court rulings, and 970 million euros of it is earmarked for magistrates. The paper reports that this translates into gross costs to the state of more than 70,000 euros per head as one-off arrears and about 20,000 euros a year in pay, which would be repeated in future salaries. The largest amounts would go to the 10,638 magistrates already in service in 2018, although everyone is expected to receive something in proportion. Adnkronos puts the number of magistrates at about 11,000 and says the amounts would vary with seniority and position.

Why the pay rises are due

Magistrates' pay is revised every three years on the basis of average increases in public employment, using a calculation method that Istat applies to workers without collective contracts. In July 2025 the Consiglio di Stato rejected that method, objecting to the exclusion of certain allowances, to the omission of some categories of public employees and to the use of a weighted average rather than a simple one. The rulings first concerned the 2018-2020 adjustments and had consequences for 2021-2023. Il Giornale reports a further ruling in August 2026 by the TAR del Lazio, which annulled the acts used to set the 2021-2023 adjustments, meaning the calculations must be redone. The government now has to fund the decrees that implement the administrative courts' decisions.

Tight budget and knock-on effects

The payout arrives while the government shapes a budget with narrow margins, which Adnkronos says rules out cutting Irpef income tax for the middle class and the tax relief on 13th-month pay, while the search for money to counter high energy bills (caro bollette) continues. Il Fatto Quotidiano says Giorgetti is giving up those tax measures to pay for the decrees. The 2024-2026 adjustments remain unresolved and could later be revised and compensated. University professors and military personnel may also be affected, since they belong to the same public-law personnel category, and unions of researchers and lecturers have started a collective appeal.

One-off arrears, over 70,000 euros70,000

Extra pay per year, about 20,000 euros20,000

One-off arrears, over 70,000 euros

70000 euros

Extra pay per year, about 20,000 euros

20000 euros

Data from the article text

Association disputes the estimate

The Associazione nazionale magistrati (Anm) rejected the newspaper's figures in a statement to Adnkronos:

“The sums indicated are the result of an estimate without foundation: the actual amounts are far lower than those reported by the newspaper.”

The association added that for a magistrate with 20 years of experience the figure is less than a quarter of what the paper wrote. Il Giornale, which contrasts the payouts with slow court proceedings, cites an average gross annual cost to the state of about 154,000 euros per ordinary magistrate in 2024. The figures in the budget table are therefore contested, and the final amounts will depend on the decrees the government adopts.