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WAGES

Saab lacks funds to pay staff wages

Cash-strapped carmaker Saab won't be able to pay this months wages to its 3,800 employees, according to a statement from the company.

Saab lacks funds to pay staff wages

“It is dreadful. Completely unbelievable. I get chest pains. How on earth are we supposed to pay our bills?,” said Fredrik Almqvist, employee of Saab since 16 years to news agency TT.

When Almqvist woke up on Thursday morning, a text message from a colleague alerted him to the fact he would not receive any wages.

He ran downstairs, turned on the TV and read on tele-text that Saab won’t be able to pay their employees.

“It is regrettable to have to notify staff of this the day before midsummer,” said Gunilla Gustavs of the information department at Saab Automobiles to news agency TT.

According to Gustavs it is impossible to say when wages could be paid out to Saab personnel.

“It is impossible to make any sort of forecast, except to repeat that the company is trying to solve this as quickly as possible,” aud Gustavs to TT.

The information reached Saab employees via email on Thursday morning.

“It has been sent to all employees notifying them that the company is late with payments,” confirmed Sten M Larsson, deputy head of trade union Unionen to TT.

And the worker’s trade union IF Metall are worried. The late payment will affect between 1,400 and 1,500 of the union’s members at Saab.

“Of course it is in no way positive that the company has got in such a pickle that they can’t pay wages to their employees,” said Häkan Skött, of the Metall union to TT.

Svenåke Berglie, chairman of FKG, the trade association representing Scandinavian suppliers to the automotive industry, told TT that this shows just how desperate Saab’s situation is.

“It is very worrying that they can’t even give a prognosis. they should be able to say when it will be dealt with, if it is this afternoon or tomorrow,” Berglie told TT.

Recently Saab’s Dutch owner Spyker announced it planned to hand over majority control of Saab to two Chinese companies, distributor Pang Da Automobile and car manufacturer Zhejiang Youngman Lotus Automobile, in a bid to secure last-ditch rescue funding.

While observers hailed the deal, which also boosted Spyker’s share price, they cautioned it might not go through quickly enough to secure the desperately-needed short-term cash Saab needs to stay afloat.

Saab, which employs 3,800 people, was rescued at the last minute in early 2010 when tiny Dutch company Spyker bought it for 400 million dollars from US auto giant General Motors.

After initial optimistic statements and production forecasts, Spyker and Saab have recently been scrambling to pull together enough cash to keep production going and suppliers happy.

Saab’s main factory stood still for over seven weeks during April and May as suppliers halted their deliveries to Saab over unpaid bills.

Production started up again on May 27 but stopped again on June 8 when the company complained it was missing components for the assembly line.

Assembly line workers were informed in a meeting on Monday that they would not be needed back at work until Monday, July 4.

According to the latest Saab statement, the company is in talks with several different parties in order to raise the cash both in the short run and through property sales and leasing.

According to the Saab statement there are no guarantees as of yet that these discussions will prove successful enough to result in more money.

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WAGES

Swiss salaries: How much do people earn in Switzerland?

Workers in Switzerland are among the best paid in the world, but the cost of living here is one of the highest as well. The Local looks at how much people in various professions earn in this wealthy but expensive country.

Swiss salaries: How much do people earn in Switzerland?
Workers in Zurich, here in the city's business district, are among the highest earners in Switzerland. Photo by AFP

Swiss wages published by the Federal Statistical Office (OFS) shed light on some interesting facts, including on how much foreign workers earn compared to their Swiss counterparts.

According to FSO’s Swiss Earnings Structure Survey of 2018, the last year for which official statistics are available, the median monthly wage in Switzerland is 6,538 francs.

The salaries have not dramatically changed since then.

The study shows that the lowest-paid 10 percent of employees earned less than 4,302 francs per month, while the highest-paid 10 percent earned nearly 11,700 a month.

Gender-based wage disparities

Not surprisingly, the survey shows wage disparities between men and women across all professions, levels of education, age groups, and private and public sectors.

On average, women earn 11.5 percent less than men working in the same positions, though the gap has steadily decreased in the past decade.

Another disparity: Swiss versus foreign workers

FSO figures also show the divergence in wages between the Swiss and foreigners with different work permits.

As the chart below indicates, while a Swiss man earns 7,500 francs a month, a Swiss woman is paid just over 6,000 for the same job.

EXPLAINED: How much do foreign workers in Switzerland earn?

Now let’s look at the foreign workforce.

A man with a short-term L permit earns about 5,000 francs, while a woman holding the same permit will make a little over 4,000.

The pay is a bit higher for B permit holders: 5,700 francs for men and 5,000 for women.

Cross-border men workers with the G permit earn roughly the same as C permit holders — about 6,200 a month. The women in those groups, however, don’t have the same salaries: about 5,800 for border workers and 5,000 for permanent residents.

This could be because the former category has the skills specifically needed by Switzerland’s labour market.

So what are the average Swiss salaries for various professions?

First, keep in mind that wages vary from one canton to another. Generally speaking, people earn more in Geneva and Zurich than in Ticino, but the cost of living in these regions is correspondingly higher or lower.

READ MORE: Geneva voters approve ‘world’s highest’ minimum wage

Typically, professionals like doctors, lawyers, or engineers, as well as people working in information technology, the pharmaceutical industry, and bank and insurance sectors have the highest salaries.

On the other hand, unskilled workers are ones who are lowest paid, often referred to as ‘working poor’. 

Lohncomputer, a platform for European citizens who want to or already work in Switzerland, lists median monthly wage estimates culled from various salary surveys.

Here are just a few examples:

  • Lawyer: 9,300 francs
  • Accountant: 8,125 francs
  • Teacher: 7,292 francs
  • Bank employee: 6,750
  • Architect: 6,250 francs
  • Nurse : 5,667 francs
  • Carpenter: 5,150 francs
  • Hairdresser: 4,375 francs

Other salary estimates can be found here.

If you’d like to find the expected average wage in your industry, check this link.

How does Swiss income compare with wages in other European countries?

With a median salary exceeding 96,000 francs annually, Switzerland’s workers have highest wages in Europe, according to a survey by an international consultancy firm Willis Towers Watson. 

The second-highest is Denmark, with just over 63,000, followed by Norway (almost 60,000).

Out of 18 countries surveyed, Portuguese and Greek workers fared the worst, with average yearly salaries of 22,630 and 25,132, respectively.

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