Salary madness

Mario Monti's policy of transparency in public sector remuneration has thrown up some interesting disparities. A public letter signed by the heads of the most important art galleries in Italy, including those of the Gallerie Borghese in Rome and the Uffizi in Florence, declare that they earn less than €2,000 a month, less than a quarter of the salary of a clerk at the President's Offices and less than a sixteenth of the pension of the former Secretary General of the Senate.

Of course it will take years to eliminate the jobs-for-the-boys culture of the Italian political class, but in this case Monti has made a good, if timid, start.

However, writing in the Financial Times, Beppe Severgnini, who refers to the unelected Prime Minister as like a nanny and calls him Mario Poppins Monti, says that he has been too cautious in front of several vested interests and the cap of €295,000 for public officials will only apply to new contracts.

There's a lot of anomalies to dissolve, including Article 18 which prevents companies from laying off workers and means foreign direct investment in Italy is effectively zero.

Poppins only has a year left.