Swiss salaries: high, stable, yet not enough for many

Quickly spent: in Switzerland, without a rail reduction pass, CHF200 gets you two adult return tickets (second class) from Bern to Zurich. KEYSTONE/© KEYSTONE / CHRISTIAN BEUTLER

How far does almost CHF7,000 ($7,850) get you in Switzerland? New statistics show that the median salary in the country is still rising, but for parts of the population it’s not enough to keep up with growing costs.

Salaries: high and stable since 2008

In 2022, for a full-time job in Switzerland, the median monthly pre-tax salary was a tidy CHF6,788, the Federal Statistical Office (FSO) said on TuesdayExternal link. This marks an increase of CHF123 per month compared to 2020, and CHF350 compared to a decade ago, according to the stats, which are collected every two years. The gaps between top, middle and low earners have meanwhile remained “relatively stable”: between 2008 and 2022 all income categories saw similar nominal gains.

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But lurking behind the stability are big differences. For example, if you want a higher salary, albeit also higher prices, then you’d be better off in Zurich (CHF7,729) than Ticino (CHF5,590). A university degree, especially if it leads to a job with “a high degree of responsibility”, also nets you at least a few thousand francs more than a qualification from an applied sciences university or an apprenticeship. However, the really decisive factor is what you do: industries with high “value creation” like tobacco, banking or pharma are leagues ahead of low earners like the restaurant or hotel sectors.

The gender gap: slowly narrowing

Another factor still accounting for differences, albeit decreasingly so, is gender. In 2022 women earned 9.5% less than men – down from 10.8% in 2020 and 11.5% in 2018. While the FSO didn’t offer an explanation as to why the number was falling, it did say why the gap exists: education, age, level of responsibility or sector all play a role. But as the statistics are modelled to reflect full-time salaries, they also partly obscure a practical reality: Swiss women work part-time much more than men. According to left-wing newspaper Le CourrierExternal link, the FSO stats thus show a “male-centred” picture which “doesn’t reflect the salary conditions of a majority of women”.

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Meanwhile women are over-represented in low-income sectors (less than CHF4,500), at 62.5%, and under-represented in high-income jobs (more than CHF16,000), at 24.6%. That said, both these situations are slightly improving in women’s favour, the FSO says. A law demanding that the biggest Swiss public companies have at least 30% women on their boards of directors, and 20% on their executive boards, could further shift this latter statistic in the coming years. However, as the stats also show, the gender pay gap grows the more you move up the professional hierarchy.

Trouble in paradise? Many in Switzerland have problems

Without a doubt, CHF6,788 is a lot of cash. Indeed, Switzerland is often classified as having some of the highest salaries in the world – includingExternal link for those at the bottom of the scale. Even so, money disappears fast. Zurich and Geneva regularly feature towards the top of “most expensive cities” rankings; the Alpine nation also tops The Economist magazine’s Big Mac IndexExternal link. Add to this tax and pension deductions, high average rents (CHF1,412 per apartment in 2022), public transport costs, and ballooning health insurance costs (CHF360 per month), and the eye-watering salaries don’t seem so high anymore.

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And while inflation hit Switzerland less hard than other countries over recent years, it also cancelled out the salary gains announced by the FSO. Since 2020, real wages overall actually fell by 0.8%, the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) says. This is also less pronouncedExternal link than in other European countries, but it has been felt: notably, a much-cited survey last week showed that half of Swiss families are unable to save enough money each month to cover an unexpected expense like an urgent visit to the dentist. Four out of ten families say their financial situation plays a role in not having more children.

As for those “at risk of poverty” – defined as having a disposable income less than 60% of the median – this covered 14.5% of the Swiss population in the reference year 2021. The European Union average was 16.8%.

Neutral statistics, political interpretations

The ambivalence as to how good or bad the situation is (or how good for some, how bad for others) was reflected directly in the reactions to the statistics.

As if to pre-empt the debates, the FSO even invited the head of the Swiss Employers’ Federation, Roland Müller, as well as the Trade Union Federation’s chief economist, Daniel Lampart, to its press conference – where, according to Le Temps newspaper, the “jousting” between the pair almost eclipsed the news of the day, including the positive developments like the falling gender gap.

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For Müller, while the inflation situation is difficult, the Covid-19 pandemic and geopolitical uncertainties could have made things much worse. Overall, he said, the stability seen in the statistics was “cheering”. Lampart, for his part, said that 12.5% of workers living on a “low salary” (less than CHF4,525 per month) was too much, and that CHF5,000 should be seen as a minimum.

But with the Employers’ Federation not keen on more sectoral wage increases, unions are currently focusing their efforts on more fertile hunting grounds, including cantonal minimum wages and popular votes on boosting purchasing power – such as the recent “13th pension payment” success and an upcoming vote on health insurance costs.

Edited by Balz Rigendinger/ts