Workers in Switzerland are among the highest-paid in the world, even though their salaries have stagnated since 2016. But next year their wages will rise by an average of 1.1 percent.
This is the finding of research conducted by Lohntendenzen.ch, a portal that examines salary trends in Switzerland, NZZ am Sonntag newspaper reported on Sunday.
After accounting for the 0.2 inflation predicted by Swiss National Bank, there will still be a 0.9 percent rise in real wages.
“The companies increasingly involve their employees in the success of recent years”, said Andreas Kühn, author of the wage study.
Due to the economic upturn, corporate profits have risen sharply and the 20 largest Swiss companies have distributed record dividends of 40 billion francs to their shareholders this year, he said. The low unemployment rate of 2.1 percent also drives higher wages.
People working in information technology, the pharmaceutical industry, and bank and insurance sectors will have the biggest salary hikes, researchers found.
Even before the announced raise, Swiss employees were among the best paid in Europe. According to international consultancy firm Willis Towers Watson, wages across Europe vary widely, but Switzerland leads with just over 96,000 francs annually, followed by Denmark (63, 021), and Norway (59,713).
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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