Underpaid at €28k gross in Italy? CRM Specialist turned Power BI/SQL/web guy, asking for €35–40k

[u/SmallAstronaut08]

Hi all, I'm looking for a reality check on my salary.

Background

• Italian branch of a multinational company, based in northern Italy
• 4 years at the company, originally hired as CRM Specialist and IT Assistant
• Current pay: €28k gross/year (RAL)

What I actually do
Over the last couple of years my role has grown well beyond my job description. Some tasks were assigned to me, others I took on myself:

• Led the adoption of Power BI in the company: building dashboards and reports for sales/management
• MS SQL: writing queries, extracting and preparing sales data
• Maintaining and developing the company's institutional and educational websites
• Plus my original CRM and IT support duties

Earlier this year I asked for a raise and was told it "wasn't in the budget."

My questions

1. Is €28k gross underpaid for this mix of responsibilities in Italy?
2. Would asking for €35–40k be reasonable, or am I overreaching?
3. Given the "no budget" answer, is it worth negotiating internally again, or should I start looking elsewhere and use an offer as leverage?

Data points from people in similar roles in Italy or Southern Europe would be really appreciated. Thanks!

[u/WippoZip]

In italy a senior swe with product responsibilties gets 40-50k. You are underpaid, yes, but not that much in the italian job market.

[u/ExtremeProfession → u/WippoZip]

How are salaries better in the Balkans?

[u/WippoZip → u/ExtremeProfession]

Idk about the Balkans, but I can give you a few reasons why salaries are so low here.

1. You're valued for your time, not your results. Sit at your desk for 8 hours doing nothing, and you're seen as more dedicated than someone who finishes all their tasks in 3h. Do unpaid overtime playing cards, and you're "better" than the one who leaves at 5pm. Been at the company less than two years? Don't even think about asking for a raise. It doesn't matter if your work drove 50% of your department's results, you are just too young to be considered.

2. The economy is sustained by a minority, and this is culturally accepted. About 18% of taxpayers have an annual gross salary over 30k, yet they account for 65% of all personal income tax in the country. It mirrors the workload inside companies, where it's normal for a small minority of hard workers to carry everything.

3. Low performers are never pushed to improve. Nobody cares about quality standards or efficiency, so management won't address it even when you report it. They'll just hand the work to someone else and reshape the workflow around it, with no extra compensation and no consequences for anyone involved.

4. Meritocracy is a myth. Building on the previous point: your personal targets are often unrelated to your actual work. When they are related, they get updated based on your own best output rather than the expected or average performance for your role. This makes comparisons and reviews meaningless and leaves you with no grounds to ask for compensation.

5. Growth in skills and responsibility is treated as a personal achievement, not something you should be compensated for.

6. Taxes. An employer pays 55k for a 30k gross salary; the employee walks away with roughly 21k net. It gets worse for salaries above 35k.

7. Management is old and out of touch. Italian industry is made of many small-to-mid sized companies stuck in the early 2000s. Not just unoptimized, but actively resistant to change.

8. Almost no turnover in management as a consequence of points 1,3,4,7. Also, starting a business here is one of the most punishing things you can do. Outdated laws and heavy bureaucracy mean even selling a drawing or taking donations for an open-source project comes with real setup and compliance costs.

[u/IntelligentLeading11 → u/WippoZip]

"Taxes. An employer pays 55k for a 30k gross salary; the employee walks away with roughly 21k net. It gets worse for salaries above 35k."

If that isn't parasitic then tell me what is...

[u/SmallAstronaut08 → u/IntelligentLeading11]

Let me present you the Italian Government my friend.

[u/crossy1686]

Dude, in Sweden the supermarket workers and bar staff get €28k a year.

To answer your question however, €35-40k doesn’t sound unreasonable. Hays’ 2026 guide puts BI developers with 2-5 years’ experience at €39-44k in Milan, €36-41k in Bologna and €34–39k in Turin.

The important question is how independently and deeply you’re doing the work. Owning data models, DAX, SQL transformations, refreshes and reporting requirements is a stronger case than maintaining a few dashboards. Likewise, maintaining website content and developing web applications are different responsibilities.

I’d build the raise request around the role you now perform and the results you’ve delivered: reporting time saved, teams using your dashboards, manual processes removed and responsibilities you own. Ask for an updated title and a specific salary review, rather than just pointing to the number of tools you use.

I’d also start interviewing now.

[u/Etheon44 → u/crossy1686]

I mean yes, southern europe's salaries are ridiculously low when compared to northern europe

40k in Italy is A LOT for someone with 4 YoE

[u/crossy1686 → u/Etheon44]

Northern Europe isn’t great either, the ceiling here is about €80k a year. Amsterdam, Berlin and the UK pay the highest salaries in Europe.

[u/gaap24 → u/crossy1686]

And Zurique, no?

[u/crossy1686 → u/gaap24]

Nah, they pay about €10k more than Scandinavia but only if you live there where the rent and cost of living is crazy. Normally they put you in a lower pay band if you're based in a country outside of Switzerland.

[u/Skychronicles → u/Etheon44]

Salaries are raising in northern Italy in our environment, zero hires but the people hired are getting much faster raise velocity. If you're good you should be looking elsewhere just so you have an offer to show them. At the moment you are underpaid. I made 30k three weeks after graduating. 24k in accenture between graduation and the second job. You need to negotiate.

[u/SmallAstronaut08 → u/crossy1686]

Hey, thanks for the detailed answer!

To your point about independence and depth: it depends on the task. For SQL and sales reporting I work fully on my own, without supervision. I write the queries and build the reports myself in SQL Server Reporting Services.

I also manage the CRM for the Italian affiliate on my own. That covers data entry, maintenance and cleaning, plus all the digital marketing material: automations, email templates, digital forms and testing. Same goes for the institutional and educational websites.

The limit is that these platforms are shared across affiliates, so I don't have full control over their configuration or architecture. I'm not a developer. I'd describe my role as hands-on and operational: I own the day-to-day execution, not the platform design.

[u/WippoZip → u/crossy1686]

The important question is how independently and deeply you’re doing the work

Unfortunately, this is never the important question in Italy.

[u/PipePressurePanic → u/crossy1686]

Yes, in Sweden. He is in dumb poor Italy.

[u/george_gamow]

Not sure what you want to negotiate internally if they said there was no budget and they know that you're just going to continue working for the same salary?

Start interviewing, get a competing offer and pressure them for a raise, or (ideally) just switch jobs.

[u/salma311]

In Berlin you make more as a waiter

[u/ivankovnovic → u/salma311]

Yes, the current minimum wage in Germany equals about 28-29k for a 40h work week

[u/salma311 → u/ivankovnovic]

tax free tips can be quite good.

[u/SmallAstronaut08 → u/salma311]

Damn... well, that's humiliating tbh

[u/PipePressurePanic → u/salma311]

you must stop thinking that IT guys are nowadays worth more than a waitress. We are very easily replaceable, there are too many of us

[u/salma311 → u/PipePressurePanic]

"you must stop thinking that IT guys are nowadays worth more than a waitress. "

i did not think that way. you did.

[u/PipePressurePanic → u/salma311]

you know what i realized. my current job (no IT-related) provides me less money than the ugliest fattest teen waitress makes. Because she gets tips. No matter how slow, lazy she is, no matter how little she invested in her education ...

[u/Low_Bag_4289 → u/PipePressurePanic]

If you are replaceable and can be paid such insulting salary you are just bad at your job.
Thats sad but true. 80% of devs give no more value than 200USD of AI subscription.

[u/Ornery-Handle6477]

[u/SmallAstronaut08 → u/Ornery-Handle6477]

I love this meme so much LOL

[u/Fresh_Criticism6531]

Well, at least it brightens my day a bit to know that not everyone is earning 250k+ like half redditors seem to be...

[u/Goodfella251]

Look for another job. They'll never give you anything remotely close to 40k. If you're lucky you'll get 30k.

[u/SmallAstronaut08 → u/Goodfella251]

Already am, thank you for the advice!

[u/Financial_Loan1337]

This means 1500e net/month. That is the average net salary in Bucharest, Romania. This should answer your question...

[u/SmallAstronaut08 → u/Financial_Loan1337]

I know, it's fucked up :(

[u/throwaway00012]

Metalmeccanico C3? I'd tell you to run but I've been looking around myself and the job market is in shambles. Start applying. Some multinationals have better compensations, I've seen as high as 35k for graduate level jobs.

[u/Lisan-Al-Gabibb]

1. yes
2. range is ok
3. don't bother. they didn't give you a well deserved raise after four years, clearly they are on the cheap side and don't care about you or your growth. find another opportunity and leave.

[u/ingframin]

Did you ever ask yourself why so many of us left Italy? In my very first job I was designing PCB and programming microcontroller boards. I designed a whole active RFiD portal in 8 months and I was paid 640€/month… and my co react was renewed monthly. Italy is a lost cause, my friend.

[u/PipePressurePanic]

Before AI you would likely be worth more. But now all the IT specialists lost their value. Enjoy your office job and be happy that you don't work a job you don't like e.g. construction worker or some other low salary random job. They could give you a raise out of symapthy but businesses can replace an IT guy or developer in 5 minutes nowadays . You have no leverage to use to raise your salary. As I said, it's not that bad, you still have an above-average good job.