Working and Hiring in Rome: Pay, Rent and What Employers Should Know

What it costs to employ someone in Rome

Italian social contributions are national, so an employer in Rome pays the same rates as anywhere in Italy. For an office employee on a permanent contract at an industrial company, the employer pays 26.38% of pay in 2026: 23.81% for pensions, 1.61% for unemployment, 0.46% for maternity and 0.5% for the severance guarantee fund. On top, the employer sets aside severance pay (TFR) of about 1/13.5 of pay each year. On the Lazio average employment income of €25,820, that comes to €34,414.80 a year, or 33.3% more than pay. Workplace accident insurance (INAIL) depends on the sector and comes on top.

Lazio has the highest average regional income tax surcharge in Italy, €790 per taxpayer in tax year 2024, and with Liguria the highest average municipal surcharge, €280. Employees pay these, through payroll. Collective agreements, notice periods, leave and national income tax are covered in our guide to hiring in Italy.

Pay in Rome

Employee taxpayers in Lazio, the region around Rome, declared an average employment income of €25,820 for 2024, according to Ministry of Economy and Finance tax data. That is 6.5% above the Italian average of €24,250. The figure includes part-time and part-year work and is taxable income after the employee's social contributions, so it is not the same as a full-time gross salary. Official pay data for the city alone was not available for this page. See average salary in Rome.

Rent in Rome

New free-market long-term leases in Rome cost an average of €162.20 per m² a year in 2025, or €13.52 a month, according to the Agenzia delle Entrate property market observatory (OMI). For the average home of 80.1 m², that is about €1,083 a month. Most new leases in Rome use agreed rents, which are lower: 65.7% of the 54,506 leases registered in 2025. See cost of living in Rome.

The Rome market in figures

Rome has the largest volume of home sales in Italy, with more than 37,000 homes sold in 2025, 6.2% more than in 2024, and 54,506 new residential leases. Lazio counted 2,339,299 employee taxpayers for 2024, the second highest of the Italian regions after Lombardy in the tax data. Official 2025 employment and unemployment rates for the city were not available for this page.

How to hire in Rome

1. Find the person. Write the role, set the salary against Rome pay levels and the national collective agreement for the sector, then source and interview candidates. You can run the search yourself with a job post, or use a placement service that delivers a shortlist.
2. Choose how to employ them. An Italian entity running payroll, an employer of record or a freelance contract.
3. Make the offer. The contract has to meet Italian employment law and the collective agreement that applies.

There are 3 ways to employ someone in Rome. With an Italian entity, you register a company in Italy, run payroll and pay the employer contributions yourself. With an employer of record (EOR), a third-party provider becomes the legal employer and runs Italian payroll for a monthly fee per employee, while your company directs the work. With a contractor or freelance agreement, the person invoices you through their own business, and the relationship has to be genuinely independent.

Euro Remote Talent does not employ people on your behalf. We handle the placement: we find and shortlist the candidate, and you employ them through the route that fits.

How Euro Remote Talent can help

We do placement. We source, screen and interview remote professionals across Europe, then deliver a shortlist of 3 candidates within 21 days for a flat $6,500, or your deposit back. Prefer to run the search yourself? Post a job for $299 and reach candidates who want to work remotely.

See how placement works, post a job or book a 30-minute call. Browse remote jobs in Italy to see who is hiring there now.