They have a paycheck, but their money runs out long before the end of the month . They are the working poor , a term coined by the English in the 19th century to describe wages that don't guarantee survival. In Sardinia, this happens to one in three employed people.
The general secretary of the CISL Sardinia , Pier Luigi Ledda, has raised the alarm: "First of all, we're talking about employment characterized by strong precariousness . Among new hires, permanent contracts account for just over 11%. In all other cases, almost nine out of ten, recruitment is temporary or involves discontinuous work ." Ledda, therefore, is calling on the Region to "develop a stable and structural model of active policies that combines employment, skills, job quality, and pension sustainability. It's not enough to simply create jobs: these must generate adequate incomes, full careers, and solid contributions . Otherwise, the island risks consolidating a dual market: more employed but more vulnerable; more inflows but fewer rights; more paychecks but with less value."
The starvation wages are reflected in the average annual salary : in Sardinia , according to the BES report for the territories, published at the end of 2025 by ISTAT, it is 17,642 euros , "six thousand less than the national figure," the union representative emphasizes. Then there is the gender issue: still in the dependent workforce, " 45% of women have a precarious contract ," Ledda explains.
In short, an emergency that also emerges from Elisabetta's story , interviewed in the pages of L'Unione Sarda, on newsstands today : « I live on 500 euros a month and the only luxury I can afford is going out for pizza with my husband once a month».
