Swiss perspectives in 10 languages

Solothurn voters reject minimum wage of CHF23 per hour

Solothurn voters reject minimum wage of 23 francs per hour
Solothurn voters reject minimum wage of CHF23 per hour. Keystone-SDA

Employees in the Swiss canton of Solothurn will not receive a minimum wage of CHF23 ($25.30) per hour. Voters have clearly rejected a left-wing popular initiative for a minimum wage. The energy law also failed at the second attempt.

+Get the most important news from Switzerland in your inbox

The “minimum wage initiative” launched by a committee made up of the Social Democrats, Young Social Democrats and the Federation of Trade Unions failed with 59% of votes against. Only the result for the city of Solothurn was still pending at midday.

The minimum wage of CHF23 per working hour would not have included holiday and public holiday pay. The government and parliament rejected the request.

+ Nine issues to be decided in six Swiss cantons

In German-speaking Switzerland, only canton Basel City has had a minimum wage since July 2022. Cantons Jura, Ticino, Neuchâtel and Geneva have also introduced a minimum wage.

Voters in Solothurn also rejected the completely revised Energy Act with 59% of votes against. The Swiss People’s Party had called for a referendum.

Translated from German by DeepL/ts

This news story has been written and carefully fact-checked by an external editorial team. At SWI swissinfo.ch we select the most relevant news for an international audience and use automatic translation tools such as DeepL to translate it into English. Providing you with automatically translated news gives us the time to write more in-depth articles.

If you want to know more about how we work, have a look here, if you want to learn more about how we use technology, click here, and if you have feedback on this news story please write to english@swissinfo.ch.

Coming soon Lost Cells A podcast uncovering the human stories behind private stem cell banking's promises and failures. Get notified

Most Read
Swiss Abroad

Most Discussed

News

In compliance with the JTI standards

More: SWI swissinfo.ch certified by the Journalism Trust Initiative

You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here . Please join us!

If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.

SWI swissinfo.ch - a branch of Swiss Broadcasting Corporation SRG SSR

SWI swissinfo.ch - a branch of Swiss Broadcasting Corporation SRG SSR