Matteo Corti
The article deals with the concept of wage in the Italian legal order. About thirty years ago a number of decisions of the "Cassazione o Sezioni Unite" the Italian supreme Tribunal strengthened the role of collective agreements in the definition of the wage structure: according to the Cassazione social partners enjoy a great freedom in the definition of the basis for the calculation of wage components even when the right to these components is attributed to the employee by statutory law, as it is the case, e.g., for the wage in the events of vocation. The author analyses the contribution of the jurisprudence and the scholars since the mentioned decisions of the Cassacione. In the conclusions the author suggests that the jurisprudential orientation inaugurated by the Sezioni Unite has gone basically in the right direction, even if, in some respects, too far.