Switzerland’s Federal Court has ruled in favour of allowing Zurich and Wintertur to set a minimum wage after years of legal wrangling threatened to prevent the measures coming into force.
The cities of Zurich and Winterthur will, at last, be able to introduce a minimum wage.
In a ruling published on Wednesday, the Federal Court overturned the decisions of the Zurich Administrative Court, which had invalidated the two cities’ move toward minimum wage.
In June 2023, residents of both cities had accepted regulations providing for the introduction of a minimum wage.
In Zurich, 69 percent of voters approved the minimum wage of 23.90 francs an hour, while in Winterthur, the salary was set at 23 francs an hour, after 65 percent of voters accepted the proposal.
At the time of the vote the Swiss Union Federation said the acceptance at the polls “represents concrete progress for tens of thousands of people who still work today at too low wages.”
Cédric Wermuth, co-president of the Social Democratic Party, described it as an “historic moment”.
But then the plan came unstuck. The Chamber of Commerce and the employers’ union filed appeals against this decision.
In 2024, the Zurich Administrative Court accepted these arguments, ruling that these municipal decisions did not comply with cantonal legislation.
But the Federal Court ruled that the two Zurich cities have a “sufficiently broad autonomy to adopt such measures.”
“The regulations on social assistance adopted in Zurich do not contradict municipal minimum wage regulations. Their very aim is to prevent the affected “working poor” from having to rely on social assistance,” the ruling said.
