Women demanded pay equality during strikes in Switzerland
Keystone / Martial Trezzini
Women in Switzerland are still paid around 12% less than their male colleagues for doing the same work, depending on the occupational group.
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A full-time employed person received a median wage of CHF81,500 in 2024, according to the Federal Statistical Office (FSO) based on the Swiss Labor Force Survey (SLFS). This means that half of full-time workers earned more, the other half less. A full-time employee is defined as someone working 90% or more of the day.
Men earned CHF90,800 full-time and women CHF80,000. This corresponds to a 12% lower wage for women.
The difference is even more striking among self-employed women, whose median salary of CHF65,000 is almost a quarter lower than that of men at CHF84,000. For executives and senior managers, compensation is CHF139,000 for men and CHF120,000 for women, approximately 14%, the report added.
According to the FSO, large differences were evident in intellectual and scientific professions, where the median wage for women, at CHF96,000, is 18% lower than that of a man, who earns CHF117,000.
The only exception in the survey is the median wages of full-time apprentices. Here, wages are generally the same regardless of gender and are only sometimes lower for women.
The differences also apply to part-time workers. Here, too, men consistently received significantly higher wages, according to the Federal Office for Social Affairs.
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Gender wage gap is shrinking in Switzerland – slowly
Translated from German by DeepL/mga
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