The most important key figures from the Confederation’s latest wage report
Published: Tuesday, Mar 19th 2024, 14:00
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Every two years, the Swiss Salary Structure Survey provides a representative overview of the salary situation of employees working in industry and the service sector. Below are the most important results for 2022:
MEDIAN SALARIES: The median salary for a full-time position in the overall economy (private and public sector) amounted to 6788 francs gross per month. The 10 percent of employees with the lowest wages earned less than 4487 francs per month, while the best-paid 10 percent received over 12,178 francs.
WAGE GAP: The general wage gap barely changed in the economy as a whole between 2008 and 2022. During this period, the wages of the best-paid 10 percent of employees rose by 13.5 percent. Wage growth was lowest in the middle class at 11.5 percent, while the lowest-paid 10 percent of employees saw their wages rise by 14.3 percent.
PAY EQUALITY: In the economy as a whole, the pay gap (median) between women and men continues to narrow. In 2022, it stood at 9.5 percent, compared to 10.8 percent in 2020 and 11.5 percent in 2018. The gender-specific wage differences can be partly explained by different profiles (e.g. level of education or age) or activities (in particular the level of responsibility at work and the economic sector).
LOW WAGES: 12.1 percent of employees (around half a million) worked for a monthly low wage of less than CHF 4525 gross. 62.1 percent of these were women (compared to 63.1 percent in 2020).
LOW-WAGE INDUSTRIES: At the bottom of the wage pyramid were personal services (CHF 4384), accommodation (CHF 4572), hotels and restaurants (CHF 4601) and retail (CHF 5095).
HIGH SALARIES: As in 2020, 75.4 percent of jobs with a gross monthly salary of over CHF 16,000 were held by men.
HIGH-WAGE INDUSTRIES: Wages were significantly higher than the median wage in sectors with high added value, such as information technology (CHF 9412), the pharmaceutical industry (CHF 10,296), banks (CHF 10,491) and the tobacco industry (CHF 13,299).
EDUCATION LEVEL: Employees with a university degree received CHF 10,210 per month for a full-time position, CHF 9,000 with a degree from a university of applied sciences and CHF 6,190 with a completed apprenticeship.
NATIONALITY: For jobs requiring a high degree of responsibility, the salary of foreign employees was higher overall than that of Swiss employees. The situation was reversed for jobs without management responsibility.
REGIONS: Gross median salaries for senior executives are regularly highest in the Zurich region (CHF 11,758), the Lake Geneva region (CHF 11,111) and the Northwestern Switzerland region (CHF 10,715). Ticino is at the lower end of the salary scale with CHF 8,755 for senior management positions and CHF 5,184 for non-management positions, regardless of hierarchical level.
BONI: In 2022, a third (33.6 percent compared to 36.3 percent in 2020) of employees received a bonus, i.e. an irregular annual special payment paid in addition to their basic salary. The average value of annual bonuses paid out rose to CHF 11,670 in 2022 (compared to CHF 10,142 in 2020).
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