BERN, SWITZERLAND – The Swiss Federal Statistical Offices new figures for average earnings in Switzerland show women making barely any progress in catching up with men for equal pay. The average salary in 2010 was CHF5,979, but the spread was large: women made on average CHF5221 and men CHF6,397.
Differences are explained to some extent by different qualification levels and years of service, but women account for the vast majority of fulltime workers who earn less than CHF4,000 a month, in part because 66 percent of women work either in retail sales or the hotel and restaurant industry, in jobs with low skills required.
10% of workers, senior managers, earn CHF22,755/month
Nearly 11 percent of workers make less than CHF4,000 a month, while 10 percent, top-level managers, make more than CHF22,755 a month.
The new figures show that the most qualified workers saw their salaries increase by 12.3 percent during the past decade, 2000-2010, while the least qualified workers saw their pay go up by 9 percent.
Management paychecks vary enormously depending on the industry: CHF14,919 in insurance, CHF16,724 in banking, CHF17,156 in pharmaceuticals, CHF22,000 in the tobacco industry. The same level of qualification pays on average CHF10,324 in the machine industry, CHF9,750 in healthcare and CHF8,138 in construction.
Girls have made it onto Swiss kids' football teams, but that doesn't guarantee equal pay
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Switzerland is stuck at number 10 in the world’s gender gap rankings, published 10 October by the World Economic Forum in Geneva, with equal pay for men and women as one of the sticking points.
Friday 10 November the country will observe “Futur en tous genres” to encourage boys and girls to consider all kinds of training and professional work without linking certain kinds of jobs to one gender or the other.
The day replaces what used to be “girl’s day”, designed to help girls focus on broader career options.
The new focus is designed to ensure that boys also take time to reflect on gender and roles in the workplace, says Geneva’s associate director for equality in the canton’s Department of Public Instruction, Franceline Dupenloup, in an interview in Les Quotidiennes (Fr).
Down near the cellar for equal pay: Switzerland ranks number 80
Source: Swiss Federal Statistical Office
Switzerland has made great strides in the WEF rankings ( WEF page on Switzerland, pdf) in recent years, moving from 40th place in 2007 to 14, then 13 and last year to 10.
And there it sits, for the WEF rankings are based on five sets of criteria: economic empowerment, education, marriage and childbearing, social institutions and political rights, childbearing ecosystem.
The WEF rankings show the US improving, France worsening and few changes in the top 10 compared to a year earlier. The Philippines stepped ahead of Lesotho, swapping slots 8 and 9, and Ireland stepped in front of New Zealand, swapping places 5 and 6.
The Swiss are number one for literacy and enrollment in tertiary education, but the country is down at number 80 for equal pay, which government statistics show to be about 20 percent lower for women, with little change in sight.
Women in ministerial positions: Switzerland ranks 7, and it is this category that boosted the country when two and then three women joined the cabinet of seven in the past four years. And since the WEF rankings are dollar-based and the franc is strong, Switzerland benefits for the category of estimated earned income (PPP US$), where it ranks fourth.
More women, 60.8%, are working and fewer men, 75.2%
Swiss statistics show women slowly but surely taking a larger role in the workplace and as their numbers grow, their influence on the earnings picture could carry weight, although there is no clear sign yet that this is starting to happen.
Federal statistics show that in 1991, the rate for women ages 15 and up who were working or unemployed was 56.8 percent. This has risen, mostly steadily, and by 2010 the figure was 60.8 percent. At the peak, in the 20-25 age group, 80.7 percent of all women are working. The figure for men 20-25 is 92.6%.
From ages 30 to 50 the rate for women remains virtually unchanged, hovering between 77 and 79 percent in 2000 and now between 81 and 86 percent, with the lowest level between ages 30 and 39. Women appear to be working longer before taking time off for young families, and going back to work sooner.
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – The Hug university hospitals in Geneva were handed a surprise strike Thursday 6 October by the workers who transport patients and material, and the union for which they work and hospital officials immediately met. The hospital says in a statement issued during the morning that its first preoccupation is the patients, and that they must not be taken hostage by the situation.
The workers’ demands prompted the hospital’s management to suggest three solutions:
- given that the hospital itself does not have responsibility for salaries, which are set by cantonal authorities, it recommends that as a temporary measure both types of transport workers be placed on the same salary scale
- that the hospital can recommend an increase in the number of staff, but for the 2012 budget
- that a reorganization of the service should be put under review.
Infectious diseases prevention projects honoured as international references
The Hug had earlier announced, Thursday evening, brighter news: its penitentiary hospital staff were awarded Wednesday, in Italy, the World Health Organization’s Health in Prisons Project prize. The award was given to the HUG jointly with the Champs-Dollon prison in Geneva, for two projects. Both are considered projects of reference in Switzerland and abroad, notes the HUG: one for measles prevention and the other a syringue-distribution project designed to reduce infectious diseases.
Ikea (here: Geneva) is one of Switzerland's many international companies
BERN, SWITZERLAND – The Swiss federal government’s tool for companies to check if their remuneration programmes respect the law on equal pay is now available in English, Bern announced Tuesday 28 June.
Logib, which was downloaded 3,700 times in 2010, was difficult for international companies, Swiss-based or foreign, to use because there was no English version.
“Logib makes it easy for companies to establish to what extent they respect an equal pay policy. They can then decide if they need to carry out a more thorough analysis with the help of experts,” the Federal Department of Home Affairs says in a statement.
It notes that other countries have expressed interest in the tool, and it has been adopted by Germany and Luxembourg.
Switzerland is a party to several international agreements on equal pay for equal work for men and women; companies are also required to make a public statement that they respect the principle of equal pay.
Pink picnics in Carouge were part of the strike for equal pay for women 14 June (photo: USS trade union)
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – It was mostly work as usual for women in Switzerland 14 June, a day marked for a strike to protest the 20 percent less that women earn, across the board.
Small groups gathered in several places and some of them notably blew pink whistles at 14:06 to mark the 20th anniversary of the strike for equality for women. 20 Minutes reports a record crowd of 1,000 in Geneva, 500 at Place de la Riponne in Lausanne and far smaller numbers in German-speaking Switzerland.
USS, one of the country’s main trade unions, gave a figure of 100,000 who participated in the day’s events.
The reality of the difference in salaries is well documented, according to both the Swiss Statistical Office in Neuchatel and the Bern-based Federal Office for Gender Equality, the FOGE (2009 report).
In 2006, a year that served for several studies, women earned 24 percent less than men on average, for a salary difference of CHF1,747 a month. Some 60 percent of this could be explained, by differences in qualifications, for example, but 40 percent is considered discriminatory under Swiss law, leaving women earning CHF700 a month less, for the same work with the same qualifications, on average.
Married women who work earn 31 percent less, in part because more women are in part-time jobs, where the pay is often lower: 13 percent of men work part-time, but 57 percent of women work part-time.
Women in professional positions also earn 31 percent less, in part, according to government studies, because men tend to be paid higher bonuses and other add-ons to salaries.
The FOGE provides a self-test, online, to check salary discrimination, and offers suggestions for how to ensure you are paid correctly.
Net monthly salary by age and gender, 2009 (source: Swiss Statistical Office)
Workers in 2010 had a small amount left over after inflation cut into slightly higher salaries
Neuchatel, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - There wasn’t a lot left over for additional spending in 2010, in Swiss households, despite wages inching up by 0.8 percent. Inflation also rose by a whiff, 0.7 percent, leaving a small improvement of 0.1 percent. A monthly salary of CHF10,000 would thus have seen a real improvement of CHF100 in 2010.
The Swiss nominal wage index rose to 108 points, compared to the base of 100 set in 2005.
The 2010 figures were lower than the two preceding years, with 2.0 and 2.1 percent increases respectively, for 2008 and 2009.
The 2010 salaries, with an overall 0.8 percent increase, were negotiated in October 2009, in the uncertain and gloomy climate of the economic crisis.
The figures include the half million workers covered by collective contracts, negotiated for 0.7 percent increases in 2010, and the services sectors, where salaries rose 0.9 percent.
The textile industry saw the smallest salary increases while the chemical industry, up 1 percent on average, saw the largest, but for the chemical industry this was nevertheless the lowest rise since 1999.
Related stories this week: latest figures on Swiss Consumer Price Index, Swiss unemployment
Executive board compensation up nearly one-third
Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Karsten Kengeter, head of investment banking at UBS, earned 20 percent less in 2010 than in 2009, but his salary of CHF874,626 plus bonus still amounted to CHF9.32 million, or over $10 million.
The bank says 88 percent of the bonus will be deferred.
Kengeter was the highest paid member of the bank’s executive board, the UBS annual report, published Tuesday 15 March show. Compensation for the 13-member board rose from CHF68.7m to CHF91m as the company returned to profitability.
Oswald Gruebel, chief executive, refused a bonus for 2010, as he did in 2009 when he joined the bank, because its performance is not yet “satisfactory” he has told journalists in recent weeks, in interviews.
Kaspar Villiger, chairman of the board, “chose to waive a substantial part of the share award and instead to accept a
limited number of 26,940 UBS shares with a fair value of CHF500,000,” UBS notes.
Basel, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Swiss residents could be forgiven for wondering if Novartis is in relatively good or bad shape Thursday morning, depending on which news sources they follow. The company’s annual report, published Thursday 27 January, shows net sales of $50.6 billion, up from $44.3b a year earlier. Net income was close to $10b, up from $8.5b.
But international business media focus on the gloomier side.
Buildings go up, but not construction salaries, in Switzerland in 2011
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Travail.Suisse, a union that represents 170,000 workers in three major industries, says it is “satisfied” with salaries negotiated for 2011, up to 3 percent in some cases. The construction business is the only one where negotiators have failed to agree, with companies recommending a 1 percent increase, turned down by the unions. Travail.Suisse would like to see workers continue to make up for weak cost of living increases from 2004 to 2008, when Swiss GDP rose by mor ethan 14 percent, but salaries were barely increased. Real purchasing power for workers rose by 2.6 percent in 2009 thanks to salary increases that outpaced the minimal rise in the cost of living.
Next year should help workers catch up, the group says, with a cost of living increase forecast for 0.7 percent.
Links to other sites: Travail.Suisse (Fre), TSR (Fre)
More money to spend - Photopress/Gaetan Bally
Neuchatel, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Salaries in Switzerland grew 2.1% in 2009 while real salary growth reached 2.6% due to a negative inflation of -0.5%, says the Swiss Federal Statistical Office, OFS.
This is the highest real salary growth in a decade. From 2000 to 2008 real salaries grew only between -0.4% and 1.5%.
The 2.1% increase in nominal salaries means the Swiss had a little more money to spend since the price increase for goods in 2009 was estimated at 1.4%.
Postal services and telecommunications saw the largest salary increases with 3.1%, while the smallest increase was registered in the personal services area with 1.3%.
The OFS announced in June that in 2008 one in three workers in Switzerland made between CHF4,000 and CHF8,000 per month, with an average gross salary of CHF6,046 per month.
Geneva exempt: has its own minimum wage
First Swiss minimum wage: domestic workers
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Swiss domestic workers will have a minimum wage starting 1 January, the Swiss Federal Council said 20 October.
The new federal ordinance is in effect until 31 December 2013 and is largely designed to protect the domestic workers who have flocked to Switzerland, since 2007, from low-wage countries that are part of the enlarged European Union. Technically, the new ordinance makes domestic workers part of a CTT, or “type travail” contract.
Switzerland has had no minimum wage in the past and this is the first time one has been mandated because the law allows minimum wages to be set only under exceptional circumstances: repeated salary abuse in a sector, with workers regularly paid less than the professional salary for that industry.
The federal government undertook a study in 2008, recently completed, and it consulted with the cantons, who have also studied wages for domestic workers.
It concluded that domestic worker salary abuse is widespread and routine. The new ordinance calls for a minimum wage of CHF18.50 an hour for workers with no experience, CHF20 for those with five years experience but no professional training and CHF22 for those with Swiss-approved professional training.
UK report shows London bankers earn twice as much – even after new 50% tax
London, where bank salaries are comfortably higher than in Geneva, Zurich
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Switzerland’s two big banks, UBS and Credit Suisse, have just found a new friend in the form of a report by UK-based international financial recruitment firm Selby Jennings. The report argues that fears bankers will leave London for Geneva and Zurich are “overblown”, with London’s top bank managers making twice as much as their Swiss counterparts after taxes, and that includes the new 50 percent tax on salaries over £150,000.
UBS and Credit Suisse at the time of the annual general meetings in April countered charges that they are still paying salaries which are too high by insisting they must, in order to remain competitive.
The Selby Jennings report indicates that middle management bankers are earning 15-20 percent more in London, after taxes, than those in Zurich and Geneva.
The study was summarized in the 17 May edition of the Financial Times, which cites Swiss accountants Revitrag Treuhand as saying that top bankers in Switzerland are likely to pay 41 percent of their salaries in tax.
Brady Dougan, Credit Suisse, will face investors' questions on compensation at the AGM 30 April 2010 in Zurich
Update 15:45 Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The Swiss federal government is taking three steps to curb what it calls “excessive salaries in banks and insurance companies.” It noted in a press release Wednesday afternoon 28 April that the measures were necessary because “inappropriate compensation systems with false incentives were jointly responsible for excessive risk taking, which led to the financial market crisis.” Swiss banks and insurance companies are key to the health of the Swiss economy, Bern noted, and excess pay packages are “objectionable particularly in the case of loss-making companies.”
The announcement comes just two days ahead of Credit Suisse’s annual meeting, where pay packages are on the agenda.
The three measures are:
- salary systems of financial institutions getting government assistance should be regulated for the duration of the support
- variable salary components above CHF2 million that depend on company profits should no longer be treated as personnel expenses for tax purposes, but as profit distribution (taxed as corporate profits)
- employee stock options should be taxed when they are exercised rather than when they are granted.
The last item will go directly to parliamentary committees for consideration in May 2010, but the other two require legislation to be drafted, which the Federal Department of Finance has been asked to do by autumn 2010.
It’s difficult in Switzerland to know what anyone earns, which makes it hard for many people to work out what their salaries should be, compared to the market. Some helpful official online tools: canton Vaud has a salary calculator, in French, as does Geneva, and the Union Syndicale Suisse has one, in French, German and Italian, for all of Switzerland. They’re imperfect and no calculator lists every job, but they’ll give you a relatively good idea of what value is put on various jobs, experience.
The Swiss federal Solarium web pages give salary data for regions, by gender, foreigners compared to the Swiss, and more – keep in mind that “foreigners” covers a wide range of workers, with many of them in the hotel and restaurant industry, one of the lowest paid business sectors in Switzerland.
TSR recently published a chart with salary indications.
London investment firms are doubling the salaries they are offering in many cases in order to hire back people they lost to the investment boutique business, when some 49,000 jobs were lost, reports Bloomberg. The higher salaries are designed to offset the fall in bonuses, which have come under attack in recent months.
Links to other sites: Bloomberg, Financial Times, London Evening Standard
To Facebook or not? That is the question in Payerne
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Job-seekers in Switzerland, in particular the international population of workers, often have few clues about what standard salaries are, since companies are not allowed to advertise specific job salaries, for privacy reasons. TSR/RSR have provided a useful service by posting a table of average salaries by industry. The low end of the scale is the hotel business, with an average of CHF4,000 per month and at the top is banking and finance, with an average monthly income of CHF8,500.
The table is based on Swiss federal statistics for 2008. It also shows percentage increases in salaries for 2010 that have been announced by six of the largest employers, the industries that pay the least and the change in salaries overall for the past 30 years.
Links to other sites: Travailler en Suisse (Fre), with general Swiss salary information, ch.ch on general work information
US bank Goldman Sachs is fighting a backlash against its plans to share profits with staff by opening a fund that will use the equivalent of about 2.3 percent of staff remuneration, or $500 million to help 10,000 small businesses. The bank Tuesday 17 November apologized publicly for the role it played in the global economic crisis. Goldman has recovered, with analysts saying they expect it to pay close to $22 billion in compensation to staff in 2009. Warren Buffett, a Goldman investor who will oversee the small business programme, told the FT it is not designed to compensate for the bank’s errors.
Links to other sites: Bloomberg, Financial Times, Yahoo Finance
Foreigners at top end out-earn Swiss
Neuchatel, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Top managers’ salaries in Switzerland have continued to rise “sharply”, especially in the financial field, since 2006, and the spread between Switzerland’s lowest paid workers and highest increased, a preliminary government statistical report shows. Well-qualified foreign workers and those with long-term C residence permits out-earn their Swiss counterparts while foreigners with lower qualifications and some border workers earn less than Swiss people in comparable jobs.
Salaries, bonuses for insurers, bankers up sharply 2006-2008
The Swiss Statistical Office Tuesday 17 November issued its preliminary report on salaries in 2008. Salaries remained mostly stable, it shows, with the financial sector an exception: salaries and bonuses both rose, with top managers’ salaries increasing 38.8 percent from 2006-2008, compared to an 11.6 percent increase for top managers in all other fields.
Peter Brabeck, chairman, Nestle
Vevey, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Peter Brabeck, chairman of Vevey-based multinational, says the company could reconsider Switzerland as its home base if the government responds to pressure to cap executive salaries.
Geneva, a city that gives you more money after taxes, and lets you spend it quickly
Geneva and Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Geneva and Zurich among the top five priciest cities in the world, along with Oslo, Copenhagen and Toky, according to a study by bank UBS comparing prices and earning in 73 cities around the world. Salaries are highest in Switzerland, Denmark and the US, with workers in Geneva and Zurich having the highest net incomes in the world. The average employee in Delhi, Manila, Jakarta and Mumbai earns less than one-fifteenth of Swiss hourly wages after taxes.
Prices for food in Switzerland are about 45 percent more for food on average than in the rest of Western Europe but to balance it out “no other city allows workers to take home more income at the end of the month than Zurich and Geneva.”
UBS notes that the comparisons are greatly affected by currency fluctuations. London fell 20 places in the cost categories thanks to the pound’s “precipitous devaluation” in the first half of 2009.
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The four main Swiss unions, which every summer decide on their salary negotiation policies for the coming year, announced Monday 3 August that they will ask for salary increases in several services and industries. Export business are likely to be the main exception, where the focus will be on keeping jobs, says Travail.Suisse, which represents several federations.
The increases are needed, says the organization, to close the gap between the 13.8 percent increase in GDP (gross domestic product) from 2004 t0 2008 and the only slight increase of 0.5 percent in salaries during the same period. Salaries increases would also improve consumer purchasing power, the unions argue, and would thus help the Swiss economy to reboot.
The Times in the UK has been looking closely at BBC broadcast company’s pay packages and amounts paid for working wth stars, in the latest public close examination of how public money is spent. UK media took several Members of Parliament (MPs) to task recently over exaggerated expense claims. The BBC is largely funded through license fees set by the government. According to the London-based newspaper the BBC has released new information about expenses, under pressure from outside journalists making inquiries under the Freedom of Information Act, but it has not yet published figures showing how much it pays its stars. BBC figures reportedly show that 47 of its top managers are paid more than £200,000 a year. In January 2009 the company froze salaries and bonuses until 2010. BBC Executive Board expenses
Scissors award 2008 for biggest salary spread: ABB
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The salary spread between the lowest-paid worker and a member of the board in Swiss companies has increased 72 percent since 2002. While ordinary workers’ salaries have increased 8.4 percent during this seven-year period, the average board member’s pay has gone up 83 percent.
The figures were relased by Travail.Suisse Monday 15 July. They are the result of the fifth survey it has carried out of 27 Swiss corporate groups’ pay packages.
Travail.Suisse is an independent association that represents the interests of workers. It gave its annual award for the greatest spread in salaries to ABB at a press conference in Bern 15 June and called on the government to heed public cries to stop what it calls “indecent” salaries for top managers and board members.
Geneva, Switzerland (Tribune de Genève, Fre) – the city of Geneva’s notoriously complicated salary and benefits packages is about to be streamlined, with standard pay rates and fewer exceptions, according to the Tribune, which obtained a copy of a political agreement reached after months of wrangling.
Sony will keep wages unchanged for this year and cut bonuses from six to four months. The global financial crisis has hit the Japanese technology sector, causing Sony to freeze workers’ salaries in order to recover, reports Reuters. Sony, unlike some of its competitors, does not raise wages automatically based on seniority. Instead, wages increase annually based on role and performance, and rivals may follow suit as the crisis worsens. Reuters
Updated 19:00 US President Barack Obama’s government announced Wednesday morning in Washington that any bank receiving government assistance will have a pay cap of $500,000 imposed on its executives. BBC, New York Times
Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – UBS shares briefly slipped to an all-time low of CHF13.88 Monday after it announced its new compensation package, with no bonuses for bank officials in 2008 and stricter rules for the future.
Lausanne, Switzerland (TSR, Fre) – One-third of schools in canton Vaud were affected Tuesday as civil servants took to the streets again to protest the new salary grid. The crowd, estimated by TSR at 8-10,000 people, is one of the largest in the series of protests that began in January 2008.
Title: Personnel compensation in Switzerland – 2009 outlook
Location: Geneva, Ramada Park Hotel
Link out: Click here
Description: Panelists: Giorgio Cortiana,
head corporate research Europe, UBS Wealth Management Research, Martin Naville
chief executive officer, Swiss-American Chamber of Commerce
Start Time: 11:45
Date: 03 Nov 2008
End Time: 14:00
Euro 2008 tears for police
Geneva, Switzerland (Tribune de Geneve, Fre) – Police in Geneva, like their colleagues in Lausanne, have agreed to stop handing out fines for minor infractions in protest against the city’s decision not to pay them an expected CHF2,500 bonus for their Euro 2008 work.
