Wages in Switzerland are generally higher than almost everywhere else in Europe. But that doesn’t mean everyone is paid fairly, new analysis has found.
The conclusion from a large-scale salary assessment carried out by the Swiss Trade Union Federation (SGB) is that many in the country are unfairly under paid.
The organisation found that “wherever checks are carried out, violations are discovered,” adding that wages are found to be “insufficient in many cantons.”
This assessment is based on inspections of nearly 140,000 salaries carried out in 2024.
And even in sectors that have collective labour agreements (CLA) in place — which are meant to protect employees’ rights in terms of salaries and working conditions in general — “31 percent of the companies inspected” were found to pay insufficient wages.
Also. in sectors without a CLA, some cantons have set criteria that were too low for the wages customary in the location or sector, the SGB pointed out.
Overall, the organisation found that “wage protection is unfortunately flawed.”
The reason, according to the SGB, is that a number of cantons don’t properly monitor wage implementation rules.
“It is up to the cantons to carry out more checks and act in the event of repeated undercutting of standard wages.”
Not enough inspections
In fact, most cantons carry out far fewer inspections than they should, the SGB found.
On average, Swiss employers not subject to labour agreements are inspected every 26 years.
Logically, the situation is worst in cantons that carry out few inspections — Zug, Valais, Bern, Solothurn and Thurgau, where , according to the SGB, employers are only subject to checks every 158, 150, 60, 56 or 45 years respectively.
“Among the cantons whose inspection activity is close to average and which, despite observing numerous violations, take little action, are Zurich, Basel-City, Basel-Country, Aargau, and Fribourg,” the study found.
However, Geneva and Ticino are notable exceptions because “these two cantons have scrupulously implemented” salary regulations.
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‘Living wage is not the role of employers’
On June 5th, at about the same time as the SGB released its report, the media published an article about Roland Müller, head of the Swiss Employers Association, saying that “employers or economy should not cover [employees’] basic needs.
Furthermore, he suggested that if salaries are too low, “social assistance must be able to take over.”
“Guaranteeing a living wage is not the role of employers,” Müller argued, especially since companies “already contribute to social security through corporate taxes.”
He made this statement during a hearing before the National Council’s Economic Affairs Committee which, not surprisingly, incited criticism from some committee members.
“If you can’t pay living wages, you are either a bad entrepreneur or you are exploiting your employees,” countered Jacqueline Badran, a deputy from the Social Democratic Party. “You can’t seriously endorse either of these options.”
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How can you make sure you are not underpaid in your job?
Despite what the SGB’s analysis suggests, wage dumping is not widespread in Switzerland — in fact, it is relatively rare and is predominantly limited to small companies that subcontract work.
If you want to know what a standard wage is for your type of job and industry you can do so by checking out the wage calculator created by UNIA labour group.
It is programmed with the latest salary levels from 72 different industry sectors and 36,000 companies in Switzerland, so it will give you a good indication of what a fair pa is in your case.
You can find out more about fair wages in this article:
READ ALSO: How can I find out if my Swiss employer is underpaying me?
