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LIVING IN SWITZERLAND

How employees in Switzerland can take more holidays in 2023

If you work in Switzerland, you are entitled to take four weeks for holidays, either at once or in smaller time periods. There, is, however, a way, to extend your time off — if you plan ahead.

Published: 2 December 2022 16:37 CET
How employees in Switzerland can take more holidays in 2023
Watching the Matterhorn is a good way to spend your time off work. Photo by Joshua Earle on Unsplash

Four weeks (20 days) is the strict legal minimum for people working 41 hours per week, which counts as a full-time position.

However, many companies offer their employees more than the legal minimum; the exact number of days or weeks is outlined in an employment contract.

For part-time work, the four-week period is pro-rated according to the number of hours an employee works each week.

However, there is an astute way of extending your vacation time without taking off too many additional work days. This is how.

The “bridges”

As Christmas Day (December 25th) and New Year Day (January 1st) are public holidays, some businesses close down during the entire period between the two holidays, giving their employees the days between the two dates as holiday time (in addition to the statutory four weeks).

This year, however, both Christmas and New Year fall on a Sunday, so you don’t really gain anything. However, if they fall on, say, Friday or Monday, then in the very least you get a nice long weekend.

There is a movement among Swiss labour unions to provide a compensation day if a public holiday falls on the weekend, as it does this year, but so far there has not been any response from the employers’ associations.

READ MORE: Swiss politicians call for ‘lost’ public holidays to be replaced

Another longish “time off” period is around Easter: Good Friday (April 7th in 2023)  is a public holiday nearly everywhere in Switzerland, except in Ticino and Valais, as is Easter Monday (April 10th), with the exception of Neuchâtel, Solothurn, Valais and Zug.

So if you live anywhere in the country except those cantons, you can take the Thursday before and Tuesday after Easter as two “holiday” days and enjoy an almost week-long vacation which will “cost” you only two days from your 20-day yearly allowance.

You can do the same with other public holidays — for instance, next Ascension Day in on Thursday, May 18th, but many companies don’t work on Friday, making it a four-day weekend.

Again, if you take at least another day off either before or after — that is, Wednesday May 17th or Monday May 19th, you will have a five-day holiday for the price of one day from your yearly allowance.

So far, with the above combinations, you have lost three days out of 20, but have gained six and five days of holidays, respectively.

You can also do the same around other public holidays as well, either national ones or those specific to your cantons.

Why do the Swiss have so little time off anyway?

Many other European countries give their workers longer vacations — in France and Austria, for instance, employees are entitled to five weeks.

But the Swiss themselves are to blame for their briefer leave: in a 2012 referendum, 67 percent of the country’s voters rejected (yes, rejected) the proposal to extend the mandatory leave to six weeks.

They did so because they believed longer holidays would cost the economy billions of francs each year, and the money-conscious Swiss just couldn’t allow that.

As the media reported at the time, the outcome showed that Swiss voters had realised “something which sounds nice at first, on closer look brings many disadvantages” and that “citizens have kept a sense of reality.”

READ MORE : Everything you need to know about annual leave in Switzerland

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For members

MONEY

Do adult children in Switzerland have to support their parents financially?

Usually, it is the parents’ responsibility to ensure their kids are well taken care of financially. But can Swiss authorities force the children to return the favour in times of need?

Published: 30 April 2024 15:31 CEST
Do adult children in Switzerland have to support their parents financially?

In most cases, once children are grown up and out of the house, they are (or at least should be) self-sufficient in terms of finances.

Parents too should breathe a sigh of relief that they are no longer obligated to pay for their children’s expenses, except perhaps for giving them some money here and there as a gift.

This is what happens in the best-case scenario.

But what if things don’t go according to this plan — for instance, if the parents find themselves in financial straits and can’t  afford to pay their bills?

Family obligations

Generally speaking, the truly needy people who don’t have enough income to pay for their basic living expenses will receive financial help from the government, in the very least in the form of the health insurance and housing subsidy.

READ ALSO: Can I get financial help in Switzerland if I’m struggling to pay the bills?

However, before doling out public money, authorities will see whether relatives should be made to help the struggling individuals pay their bills.

(In this context, ‘relatives’ means only those in the direct line of descent: grandparents, parents, and children.)

They will do it by checking the tax status of these relatives — how much they earn and what other financial assets they have — to determine whether, and how much, they should be paying toward their parents’ expenses.

Obviously, you will be expected to pay up only if your own financial situation allows it; you will not be forced to part with your money if you have very little of it yourself.

 ‘Favourable financial circumstaces’

Based on a Federal Court ruling, if the adult child  lives in ‘favourable financial circumstances’ they are required to help out their struggling parents.

The Court defined ‘favourable financial circumstances’ as income and assets allowing a comfortable life.

‘Comfortable life’, in turn, was defined by the Swiss Conference for Social Welfare (SKOS), as a taxable annual income of 120,000 francs for a single person, and 180,000 francs for married couples.

“If you have minors in your household, the limit is increased by 20,000 francs per child,” according to AXA insurance.

It goes on to say that you can deduct an exempt amount from your taxable assets.

“Your annual depletion of assets is deducted from the remaining amount. This means that if you are obligated to provide financial support, you are permitted to use part of your assets yourself each year; you don’t have to devote your entire assets to providing support.”

At between 18 and 30 years of age, this is 1/60th per year; from 31 to 40, 1/50th per year; 41 to 50, 1/40th per year; 51 to 60, 1/30th per year; and from the age of 61,1/20th per year. 

Are there any exemptions to these rules?

Aside from not having sufficient funds, you could be exempted from paying if, say, your parents, or parent, have not lived up to their own financial obligations toward you.

In Switzerland, parents are required to  provide financially for their children until the age of majority, and even beyond that if they are still studying or undergoing vocational training — typically, until the mid-20s.

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