Italy reinstates Saint Francis holiday with Sunday pay bonuses ranging up to 53 euros

Reinstatement of Italy's patron saint holiday

The Italian calendar officially includes October 4 as a national holiday once again, marking the Feast of Saint Francis of Assisi, patron saint of Italy. The holiday had been removed from the list of national festive days in 1977 and relegated to a civil solemnity, a designation that eliminated dedicated holiday wage compensation for employees. The Italian Parliament restored the official holiday status through Law No. 151 of 8 October 2025, which entered into force on 1 January 2026. The 2026 reinstatement coincides with the 800th anniversary of the death of Saint Francis. Because the date is a statutory national holiday, eligible workers are entitled to work abstention or specific legal compensation.

Payroll rules for the Sunday calendar alignment

In 2026, the reintroduced holiday falls on a Sunday, activating specific labour code rules for what Italian law classifies as an un-enjoyed holiday. Private sector employees whose regular weekly rest day falls on Sunday cannot take an alternate weekday off, meaning they receive a compensatory allowance directly on their October pay slips. Employees who are scheduled to work on Sunday 4 October receive both the compensation rate for the holiday falling on a rest day and the hourly wages for hours worked with the contractual holiday overtime supplement. The financial addition is applied automatically by payroll departments across applicable sectors, without requiring trade unions and employers to renegotiate existing collective labour agreements.

Projected net increases across professional categories

The precise amount paid to salaried workers is derived by dividing their monthly gross compensation by the contractual day divisor established in their collective agreement, which is set at 26 days across many industries. Simulations conducted for Il Sole 24 Ore by Giuseppe Buscema, an expert at the Fondazione studi dei Consulenti del lavoro, show net October pay increases ranging between 39 and 53 euros. In the industrial metalworking sector, level B1 office employees receive a net gain of 52.70 euros, generating an overall cost to the employer of 124.33 euros. Level D2 manual workers under the industrial metalworking contract obtain a net addition of 51.62 euros, which corresponds to 106.30 euros gross. In the retail sector under the Confcommercio contract, second-level office employees receive an extra 49.62 euros net against an employer expense of 117.58 euros, while fourth-level shop assistants receive 46.40 euros net at a cost of 94.44 euros.

Variations across employment contracts and sectors

Individual compensation totals vary across the workforce because the final payment depends on the governing collective contract, professional job classification level, pay system, and working hours. Two employees who earn identical base monthly salaries can receive different net holiday supplements if their jobs are governed by separate collective contracts. For employees paid on an hourly basis, standard guidelines establish a reference figure of one-sixth of the weekly contractual hours in the absence of specific contractual clauses. Part-time employees receive compensation proportioned according to their individual contracted weekly schedule. While these automatic compensation mechanisms apply widely across private businesses, public administration employees must verify their specific compartment contracts, as private sector calculations do not transfer automatically to public sector payrolls.