By Gianluca Semeraro
MILAN, Oct 29 (Reuters) - Massimiliano Matteri, a 49-year-old teacher from Dongo, a small town on Lake Como, was thrilled when he landed a full-time job at a secondary school in Milan, but he soon found his salary was not enough to live on in Italy's financial capital.
After three years in what he called a "cell-like" studio flat on the city's outskirts, he secured a transfer to Livorno on the Tuscan coast, bought a comfortable home and now has far less difficulty making ends meet.
"It was a spur-of-the-moment decision but I've never regretted it. I would never go back to Milan," said Matteri, who teaches Italian literature and history.
His experience is increasingly common. Milan's schools are struggling to recruit and retain teachers as soaring housing costs collide with nationally negotiated salaries that offer no premium for working in Italy's most expensive city.
At the start of the summer around 4,300 teaching positions were available in the Milan metropolitan area ahead of the new school year, data compiled by the CISL trade union showed, the highest figure in Italy, out of a total of 37,000. Around a fifth remain vacant.
CHRONIC WAGE STAGNATION
The situation highlights one of the biggest headaches facing Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni before a national election next year: chronic wage stagnation.
Inflation-adjusted salaries in Italy are lower than in 1990, the only decline among more than 20 advanced economies analysed by the Paris-based Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.
Italy is also the European Union country that has seen the largest erosion of purchasing power in the last five years, Eurostat data shows.
Marches and strikes led by the USB union are planned around Italy on Friday to protest against the cost of living, low pay and declining public services.
Frustration over living costs erupted into violence this month when gangs of mainly young people went on the rampage in Milan, smashing windows, looting shops and attacking police.
HARD TO GET BY IN MILAN
For teachers and other public-sector workers, pay scales take no account of Milan's exceptionally high housing costs, pushed up partly by an influx of wealthy international bankers following Brexit and tax reform.
A teacher in Milan earns the same as one in a southern Italian village.
Teachers' net wages range from €1,350 ($1,500) to around €2,000 per month depending on seniority and school level, according to education consultancy Docenti.it.
The average monthly rent for a single room in Milan is about €700, going from €500 on the outskirts to more than €1,000 in central neighbourhoods, data from property portal Idealista shows.
Francesca Bruni, 59, who teaches law and helps students with special needs, lasted six years in Milan before getting a transfer in 2025 to her home town of Taranto on the southern coast, exasperated like Matteri by the cost of living.
"It starts with daily expenses, then finding housing," she said. "Landlords often want deposits and guarantees that teachers, especially those on temporary contracts, cannot provide."
Deutsche Bank Research Institute's 2026 Mapping the World's Prices report shows disposable income after rent in Milan is significantly lower than in any major European capital, including Rome.
Rents have risen by 20% since 2021, according to Idealista data.
Despite the costs, Giovanni Pavesi, a 43-year-old music teacher, said he was determined to stick it out in Milan rather than seek a transfer to his native Mantua, a small city some 150 km (90 miles) to the southeast.
"Nearly half my salary goes on rent, but I chose to stay for the same reasons I came here: everything the city has to offer, above all its cultural life, even though living in Milan doesn't always mean being able to enjoy it," he said.
STUDENTS CAMP OUT IN PROTEST
Since 2023 students have protested against the city's lack of affordable accommodation by pitching tents and camping out on the streets, echoing the mass housing protests seen in Spain this month.
While residents say Milan's prices are particularly unsustainable, the cost-of-living problem is felt nationwide.
Italy's inflation rate jumped in September to 4.2% from 3.2% the month before, driven as elsewhere in Europe by surging energy prices.
Italy's public-sector workers such as teachers and nurses - whose contracts are often renewed years after they expire - are among those hardest hit.
Teachers' base pay last year was 12% lower in real terms than in 2015, data from statistics bureau ISTAT shows.
Deterred by Milan's cost of living, many teachers do not apply for available positions, while others request transfers elsewhere soon after being hired.
Anna Polliani, the principal of a Milan junior and primary school, was recently forced to make temporary arrangements to fill two vacant posts to teach children with special needs.
"The problem has worsened since the COVID-19 pandemic and it is becoming endemic," she said.
($1 = 0.8993 euros)
(additional reporting by Gavin Jones, graphics by Anna Uras, editing by Gavin Jones and Keith Weir)
