The article on pay slips showing less than four gross euros an hour, now under scrutiny by USL and USOT, produced within a few hours the most revealing part of the whole story: the comments. Not the unions’ replies, not the press statements. The comments. Because alongside those calling for inspections, a segment of public opinion emerged defending those figures, wielding the oldest argument in the book: be grateful someone gives you work at all.
Well, no. And we say this as a newsroom, without mincing words.
Gratitude is not a line item on a pay slip. A collective labor agreement that applies erga omnes is not a suggestion — it is a rule: it applies to every business in the sector, not only to those in a generous mood. If a minimum wage bracket is respected, the young worker owes no one thanks; if it isn’t, that’s not tough-love discipline, it’s a violation. And on this point, it must be said, USL and USOT are in agreement: anyone paying below the minimums must be identified and brought into compliance. Curious that the union and the tourism operators agree on this more readily than the social-media crowd does.
Then there’s the nostalgic variant: back in the day, young people were sent off to learn a trade. True. But learning a trade has a technical name, a contract, a wage, and a mentor accountable for what is being taught. It isn’t an apprenticeship when the only lesson learned is that your time is worth little. Training, when it is genuine, is a cost for the business and an investment in the young person. When it’s used instead to justify the rate of pay, it goes by another name.
One detail has already been lost in the debate, yet it matters a great deal: the disputed figure is gross, not net. Blurring the two suits both those who want to shout and those who want to downplay the issue, albeit for opposite reasons. On the substance, the collective agreement covering hotels, restaurants, bars and canteens sets out precise rules: the entry-level category 1/B is already fixed at 80% of category 1/A and cannot be reduced further, while for other categories the hourly reduction cannot exceed 10%. There are also social security relief schemes offering up to 70% off contributions for hiring certain students — incentives designed to help young people enter the labor market, not to subsidize a discount on their paychecks.
Credit where it’s due: not everyone commenting on that post took the easy way out. Some explained, with a clarity often missing from official debates, that the “invisible” tasks — the restocked fridge, the set tables, the sliced bread — are exactly what keeps a business running, and that they must be paid as work because that is precisely what they are.
The real question remains unanswered, the one no one has yet quantified: how many young people in San Marino are actually paid below the minimum? A handful of isolated cases, or a widespread practice? Until verified figures emerge, the matter rests with the oversight bodies.
But on one point, Insider isn’t waiting for the figures. Whoever justifies exploitation isn’t defending businesses — they’re harming them, because it puts on equal footing the company that honors the contract and the one that exploits loopholes. From that view, we dissociate ourselves entirely. The work of an eighteen-year-old is not worth less than work. It’s worth the work itself.
