Government raises minimum wage for domestic workers

Keystone / Narong Sangnak

Domestic workers in Switzerland will have to be paid a minimum of CHF19.50 ($20.90) per hour from 2023.

The Federal Council took the decision to raise the minimum wage by 1.5% on Friday after learning about the extent of infringements between 2019 and 2021. During these three years, the minimum wage for domestic workers was not always applied. The rate of infringement of the wage provisions in the domestic work sector was around 10%.

A minimum wage for unqualified domestic workers in Switzerland came into force in 2011 at CHF18.20 per hour. 

The state can only intervene in wage setting if there is a repeated pattern of abusive wage undercutting in an occupation or sector and if no solution is possible via unions. In this case, the government consulted the cantons and the associations concerned, which were favourable.

In view of the infringements, the government also decided to extend the ordinance governing the minimum wage for domestic workers for three years. Due to the high demand for foreign labour in private households, the pressure on wages and the risk of abuse would increase if the minimum wage prescribed in the ordinance were abolished, according to the government.