Hospitality's problem? Stalled productivity
What work in Italian hospitality is worth, and why it does not grow. 6,872 job offers published on Restworld between April 2024 and September 2026, read alongside company accounts (Istat) and the European comparison (Eurostat).
- Format
- PDF · 24 pages
- Period
- Apr 2024 - Sep 2026
- Published
- November 2026
PDF · 24 pages · 669 KB · in Italian
Key figures
Five numbers to read the report
- €1,700Median monthly net pay offered, 13th and 14th month included (€1,750 full time)
- 29%Full-time offers above €30,000 gross a year
- €21,900Value produced in a year by a person employed in Italian food service (€35,000 in France)
- €17,000Yearly margin per owner or family member working in a venue under ten staff, before depreciation, interest, taxes and contributions
- +53%More applications for an offer that includes accommodation
The context
A sector looking for people and producing little value per hour
According to FIPE's Rapporto Ristorazione 2026, one company in two reports difficulty finding staff. Meanwhile companies are hiring more than in any other sector: for October 2026 Excelsior expects about 94,500 hires in accommodation, food service and tourism, and food service work is the most sought-after job in Italy. This report asks why working in hospitality pays so little, to the people who work there and to those who own the venue, by setting the workers' account, the venue's account and that of other European countries side by side.
Sources
- · FIPE-Confcommercio, Rapporto Ristorazione 2026
- · Unioncamere and Ministry of Labour, Excelsior information system, October 2026
- · Istat, Economic results of enterprises, Ateco 56, 2024
- · Eurostat, Structural Business Statistics, food service and accommodation, 2023
- · Immobiliare.it, average rents, September 2026
6 findings
What the report shows
01
Most of the gap with Europe is in the hours
A person employed in food service produces €21,900 of value a year in Italy and €35,000 in France. An Italian employee works on average 1,181 hours a year, a French one 1,561: low-paid work is first of all fragmented work, between part-time and seasons. Hour by hour the gap falls to about 17%: €18.5 against €22.4 (Restworld estimate on Eurostat data).
02
The venue's account leaves little to anyone
In the accounts of Italian food service, employee costs are 26.3% of revenue and the gross operating margin stops at 11.2%. In venues under ten staff that margin also pays the work of owners and family members: about €17,000 a year each, before depreciation, interest, taxes and contributions. It is a sector average, not an owner's income. From small to medium-sized companies, value produced per person almost doubles.
03
Housing takes a large share of pay
A room for rent is worth 40% of the offered salary in Milan, 38% in Rome and 30% in Turin. And half of the work experiences declared by Restworld members last less than six months: some are seasons, some are jobs that end early.
04
What drives applications
For the same role, quarter and area of the country, an offer with accommodation receives 53% more applications than a similar one without it. A salary above the role median brings about 11% more. Where moving or paying rent is the obstacle, accommodation widens the pool of applicants.
05
More permanent contracts
In July-September 2026, 12.4% of offers propose a permanent contract from the start, more than double the same quarter of 2025 (5.5%). The growth is gradual throughout 2026 and comes from dozens of different companies.
06
Higher pay in hotels
The 791 offers from hotels, hotel restaurants and luxury venues have a median of €1,800 net a month, against €1,692 in the rest of food service, and 40% of full-time ones exceed €30,000 gross a year (26% elsewhere). The gap shows above all in the kitchen: a chef de partie in a hotel is offered €2,158 a month on average, €181 more. And per person employed an Italian hotel produces almost as much as a French one: €52,100 against €54,100 (Restworld estimate on Eurostat data).
Pay by professional level
What people really earn, by level
More than €1,000 a month separates the senior kitchen from the bar.
| Professional level | Net equiv./month | Estimated gross annual | No. of positions |
|---|---|---|---|
| Senior kitchen (head of kitchen, exec. chef) | €2,462 | ~€43,200 | 246 |
| Senior front of house / manager | €2,017 | ~€32,200 | 243 |
| Skilled kitchen (chef de partie, sous chef, pizza chef) | €1,991 | ~€31,700 | 1,559 |
| Skilled front of house (chef de rang, restaurant manager, bartender) | €1,905 | ~€29,600 | 724 |
| Entry front of house (waiter, floor staff) | €1,555 | ~€22,400 | 1,566 |
| Entry kitchen (commis, kitchen assistant) | €1,549 | ~€22,400 | 1,220 |
| Bar (counter staff, barista) | €1,450 | ~€20,400 | 743 |
Monthly net equivalent over 12 months. Gross annual pay estimated with the full tax calculation, the same used by Restworld's salary calculator. The table covers the classic professional areas (6,301 positions): the other 571 are roles outside these areas, such as receptionists, pastry chefs, bakers and night porters. For the full methodology, see the PDF.
In food service the people are there, and so is the will to work. What is missing is the value that work manages to produce. To raise wages and venue margins at the same time, every person working there would need to generate much more revenue than today. Paying better and earning more is possible, and in Italy some venues already do it. We need a pact: the venue measures and reorganises the work and finds ways to take in more, in every service or through other sources of revenue; the extra gain is split between margin and pay, and the State taxes that part lightly.
Methodology
How we read this data
- 01
We analysed 6,872 job offers with a declared salary, published on Restworld between April 2024 and September 2026 in every Italian region, alongside company accounts (Istat, 2024) and the European comparison (Eurostat, 2023).
- 02
Offers with a salary below the collective agreement minimums, or with signs of irregular work, cannot be published on Restworld: the lowest offers on the market are missing from the data, and the figures describe offers that publish the salary and meet the minimums in the posting, not the whole sector. The check sees the posting, not the contract or the payslip.
- 03
All salaries are converted into a monthly net equivalent over 12 months, 13th and 14th month included. From this report the net-gross conversion uses the full tax calculation instead of a fixed coefficient: with the new method, the 40% of full-time offers above €30,000 gross in the July bulletin would have been 29%.
- 04
Geographic comparisons use full-time positions only. Value produced per hour worked is a Restworld estimate on Eurostat data, and the report says so.
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