Giorgia Meloni has decided not to sign the Prime Ministerial Decree which should release the adjustments to the salaries of magistrates, with the payment of arrears accrued starting from 2018. The estimated figure is around 970 million euros, which the government should find as part of the next budget law. “In good conscience I cannot put my signature”, declared the Prime Minister to Adnkronos, recalling the country’s economic difficulties and the resources necessary to support other categories, starting with hauliers.
The decision provoked a reaction from the National Association of Magistrates (Anm), which demands the application of administrative justice sentences. Former magistrate Luca Palamara also intervenes in the debate: “The caste self-liquidates the increase”, he said, while recognizing that the decisions of the Council of State must be respected. But how much does a magistrate really earn in Italy?
How much does a magistrate earn in Italy
According to data recalled in a Senate dossier, the average annual salary of the ordinary judiciary in 2024 was equal to 146,440 euros gross.
The figure includes 130,869 euros relating to the fundamental components of the salary as well as 15,571 euros of ancillary components. The data comes from the State General Accounting Office and includes the cost borne by the administration, it does not coincide with the employee’s gross tax salary. Furthermore, on average magistrates with different seniority and qualifications end up.
Judges’ salaries from entry to first evaluation: the official figures
A more concrete indication comes from the technical report examined by the Chamber in the context of interventions on hiring in the judiciary and the 2026 budget law. The statements use the current salary tables and reconstruct the evolution of the economic treatment of new magistrates. The amounts include salary, special supplementary allowance and judicial allowance.
| Career stage | Annual gross including thirteenth | Theoretical gross average over 12 months |
| Ordinary magistrate in training, fully operational | €63,813 | €5,318 |
| Ordinary magistrate after internship | €78,147 | €6,512 |
| Magistrate from the first professionalism assessment | €100,327 | €8,361 |
As you can see, the tables show how the salary grows through seniority and career advancement. Social security contributions and taxes, including applicable additional taxes, must be deducted from the gross treatment.
Why magistrates’ salaries increase automatically: where does the billion come from?
Unlike most public employees, magistrates do not periodically negotiate their salaries through the normal renewals of collective agreements. Their increases are based on a three-year adjustment mechanism, which links increases in the salaries of the judiciary to the average increases awarded to other categories of public employees.
The very method used to calculate these increases ended up before administrative judges. The associations representing the category have appealed against the criteria used by the administration and Istat to determine the salary adjustments.
With the sentences of July 2025, the Council of State censured the method adopted for the previous three-year period, agreeing with the magistrates. A subsequent ruling by the Lazio Regional Administrative Court, in August 2026, also intervened on the documents relating to the three-year period 2021-2023, imposing the recalculation on the basis of the criteria identified by jurisprudence. According to the reconstructions released in recent days, the new coefficients would be 6.22% and 12.32%, against the 4.85% and 6.69% previously applied.
Will the magistrates really get 100 thousand euros each? What Meloni wants to do
Thus, the recalculation would have two consequences: the recognition of salary differences accrued in past years and the adjustment of future salaries. The percentage is implemented through a Prime Ministerial Decree, a decree from the President of the Council of Ministers, which Giorgia Meloni now does not want to sign.
According to estimates published by Sole 24 Ore, the arrears could exceed 70 thousand euros for some magistrates, to which would be added greater future salaries in the order of 20 thousand euros per year. The National Association of Magistrates contested the figures released, arguing that for a magistrate with twenty years of experience the amounts would be less than a quarter of those indicated in the journalistic reconstructions.
The association specifies that the arrears derive from “salary components due by law” and not paid in previous years. Representatives of the Court of Auditors also contested the estimates, underlining the absence of certain parameters to determine the individual amounts. Meloni seems convinced in going to arm wrestling, even with the sentences of the administrative justice.