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WORKING IN SWITZERLAND

Teachers to tech: What wages you can expect to earn in Switzerland

Switzerland is known for the high salaries paid to employees in most industries. Here's a closer look at what you can expect to earn.

Published: 23 August 2022 13:54 CEST
Teachers to tech: What wages you can expect to earn in Switzerland
Teachers in Switzerland earn among the highest salaries in Europe. Photo by Adam Winger on Unsplash

Switzerland’s high wages have been a magnet for foreign workers for many years, including for some 300,000 cross-border commuters whose Swiss jobs typically pay more than double of what they would earn for the same positions in their own countries.

This is an overview of how much people earn in certain sectors in Switzerland and how these wages compare with those paid in other nations.

Let’s begin with teachers.

As the school year has just started in most cantons, Watson news portal has released the most recent wages paid to Swiss teachers at various levels.

This data was culled from teachers’ organisations throughout the country.

These are some of the findings:

The median annual salary for kindergarten teachers ranges from 74,737 Swiss francs for new teachers, to 112,976 francs for more seasoned ones.

At the primary-school level, the lowest rate is 78, 435 francs and the highest 117 936 francs. In secondary schools, wages range from 90,787 francs  to 136,966 francs.

The highest pay scale (103,250 francs) is at the higher-professional level.

Regionally, Zurich pays highest salaries to teachers at all levels of the educational system, with Geneva in the second place at most levels. This follows the general trend of salaries across all sectors, where wages are the highest in densely-populated, industrialised areas.

On the other hand, teachers earn the least in eastern Switzerland and Ticino, depending on levels.

You can find more detailed per-canton information, including how teacher salaries have increased over the years here.

READ MORE: What do teachers earn in Switzerland – and where do they earn the most?

How to these wages compare to those earned by teachers across Europe?

The difficulties with different statistics is that they are measured using variable criteria, so the results will vary from one source to another.

In a global survey by the EU statistics site, Statista, Switzerland ranks in the third place for teachers income, below Luxembourg and Germany, but ahead of another high-income country, Norway.

However, only wages at upper-secondary schools were taken into account in this survey, rather than overall salaries.

Salaries in other sectors

A good overview of how much people in Switzerland earn in various industries comes from a report from released in March 2022 by the Federal Statistics Office and reported by The Local.

With an average monthly gross income of 6,555 francs, Switzerland has the highest average salary in Europe.

Around one in ten Swiss residents are considered ‘low wage earners’, which means they take home less than two thirds of the median wage each month (4,443 francs). 

Perhaps unsurprisingly, average salaries in the finance industry — 10,211 francs —per month are the highest of any sector. They are followed by workers in the pharmaceutical sector (10,040 francs), followed by 9,200 francs for those in IT. 

At the lower end of the spectrum, workers in hospitality earn 4,479 francs per month and those in the retail sector make 4,997 francs per month. 

The lowest wage category in Switzerland is the ‘personal services sector’, which includes hairdressers, beauticians and undertakers. Workers in that category earn 4,211 francs per month before tax. 

Jobs in the middle of the pack with averages reflecting the national median include the healthcare sector (6,821 francs) and manufacturing (7,141 francs). 

READ MORE: What is the average salary for (almost) every job in Switzerland

International comparison

How does the average monthly gross income of 6,555 francs compare to other nations?

Looking at neighbouring countries only, the median monthly salary in Germany is 4,100 euros (3,931 francs at the current exchange rate); 2,340 euros (2,245.50 francs) in France; 2,333 euros in Italy (2,238 francs); and 2,182 euros in Austria (2,238 francs).

These wages are much lower than in Switzerland, but so is the cost of living in those countries

On the other hand, average wages are higher than Switzerland’s neighbours in Norway (44.150 kroner per month — 5,694 francs — 44,514  kroner in Denmark (5,694 francs), 46,000 kroner in Sweden (4,154 francs), and 4,910 euros (4,710 francs) in Luxembourg.

READ MORE : Do wages in Switzerland make up for the high cost of living?
 

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For members

WORKING IN SWITZERLAND

‘I thought it would be different’: What to expect from a seasonal job in Switzerland

While most foreign nationals who are employed in Switzerland work here long-term, others come specifically for seasonal work.

Published: 16 April 2024 12:35 CEST
'I thought it would be different': What to expect from a seasonal job in Switzerland

In an article published in foreign media on Monday, a South African woman relates her experiences of working in the Swiss Alps during the latest ski season.

Though she had great (and clearly unrealistic) expectations of her two short-stint jobs as a waitress in a ski resort, her hopes were dashed after she was fired from both, subsequently venting her anger on TikTok.

The litany of her complaints includes that her work “was exhausting” and that she and other seasonal personnel were “exploited”.

She even found it unfair that there were … “so many Swiss people”.

“Me not speaking German was really hard. I had to learn so many Swiss drinks. All the beers were in German, so there was a lot to learn.”

It is not clear what the woman thought her job in Switzerland, and in the German-speaking part at that, should legitimately entail, but she concluded that she is “so disappointed with Switzerland. I thought it would be completely different”.

All this brings up the question of what you should reasonably expect from a seasonal job.

But first: what is a ‘seasonal’ job?

As the name suggests, it is temporary, usually short-term work, performed at certain times of the year that are particularly busy for a given industry.

It includes extra help needed by businesses during peak periods — for instance, retailers hiring additional staff during the Christmas shopping season.

In Switzerland, seasonal (mostly foreign) workers are typically hired by winemakers during the grape harvest in early fall, or, as was the case with the South African woman, during the winter sports season.

In the latter case, as relatively few people live permanently in resort areas, there is a shortage of local employees to work in various jobs that are essential for tourism.

Tourists far outnumber the locals in Swiss ski resorts – which means “outsiders” must be hired for the efficient running of the local economy.

However, while the more “glamorous” jobs like ski instructors may be hard to get (sport instructors must have special qualifications and be certified), work in a service sector, which includes hotels, bars, and restaurants, is plentiful.

READ ALSO: How to find a job in winter sports in Switzerland 

What about summer jobs ?

They too are considered “seasonal” but would typically be filled by Switzerland-based students rather than people coming from abroad specifically for this purpose, as is the case with the grape harvesting and winter sports sectors.

In Geneva, however, this type of work has become scarce, though it is still available in most other cantons.

READ ALSO: Why it’s becoming more difficult to get a summer job in Geneva

Are seasonal employees really ‘exploited’, as the South African woman claimed?

Though Switzerland has no special regulations for seasonal workers, the usual labour rules and protections apply to them as well.

Like any other job contracts, short-term ones must also be in writing and outline the rights and obligations of both employer and employee.

However, if you think you are being treated unfairly in your seasonal (or “regular”) job, contact your employer in writing to express your position.

If that doesn’t help, your next course of action should be a union (if there is one) and, as a last resort, the cantonal civil court responsible for settling labour disputes.

How can foreign nationals apply for seasonal work permits?

Rules are determined by the candidate’s nationality – as is the case for “regular”, long-term employment.

This means that people from the European Union and EFTA (Norway, Iceland, and Liechtenstein) can work in Switzerland for up to three months without  a permit (they must, however, declare their arrival in the canton within 14 days).

Rules for people from outside the EU / EFTA depend on how long they plan to work in Switzerland.

If it is up to three months, they must apply for a short-stay L permit.

For work contracts of up to four months, a D visa is needed. 

You can find seasonal work here. 

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