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This is how much Swedish salaries increased in 2018

New figures released by Sweden’s National Mediation Institute (Medlingsinstitutet) on Wednesday showed that salaries increased at a faster rate last year than they did the year before.

Published: 30 January 2019 11:29 CET
This is how much Swedish salaries increased in 2018
File photo: Fredrik Sandberg/TT
Across Sweden, salaries increased by an average 2.6 percent during the first eleven months of 2018, representing a modest increase over the 2.3 percent growth seen in 2017. 
 
Public sector wages grew by 3.0 percent in November 2018, while the private sector increase was a more modest 2.4 percent. 
 
“The boom in the Swedish economy and the strong demand for labour have not had significant impacts on the rate of wage increase in the economy as a whole,” Medlingsinstitutet economist Valter Hultén said in a press release. 
 
“At the same time, demand for labour is very high in the public sector and this can be a contributing factor to the wage increases being somewhat higher there than in the business sector,” he continued. 
 
Although Sweden’s unemployment rate recently reached its lowest figure in ten years, there are signs that the labour market is beginning to cool.
 
Earlier this week, two redundancy support organizations said that they expected to see a significant increase in people needing their services in 2019 and in what could be considered a bad omen, Sweden’s job agency warned on Wednesday that it will let eliminate upwards of a third of its workers nationwide in a move that is expected to significantly impact job-seekers. 

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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.

Published: 12 October 2020 15:17 CEST
Updated: 7 April 2021 14:07 CEST
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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