Real wages in Italy have increased by 1% during the last thirty years, compared to 32% in OECD countries, as was widely known. Less well known was that work remained substandard despite a threefold increase in turnover and earnings over the pre-Covid period. Analyzing Mediobanca statistics, Riccardo Gallo, director of Sapienza University's Business Observatory, notes that the share of added value attributed to remunerated work declined by up to 12 percentage points between 2020 and 2023, while net profit climbed by 14 points. As a result, if employment has been saved, wages have been penalized to the benefit of shareholders' risk capital, who have reinvested only 20% of profits in their companies over the last four years and distributed 80% in dividends, detracting from factory modernization. The issue is also highly topical because it is related to contract renewal. Of Confindustria's 5 million and 800 thousand employees, 13% have contracts that will expire by the end of this year, 53% have contracts that have expired within the last 12 months, and 10% have contracts that have expired for more than two years. Renewals should be an opportunity to lessen work-related penalties.