Mr and Mrs Swiss’s Wages and Working Hours
The Federal Statistical Office has lately presented its figures regarding the wages and working hours of the Swiss. According to them, a total of 7,861 billion hours were worked last year, with the average weekly working time being 41 hours and 7 minutes. In 2016 the average monthly gross pay in a full-time job was 6502 Swiss francs.
Increasingly More Time for Swiss Employees
According to the Federal Statistical Office’s surveys, the Swiss have increasingly more free time: the full-time employee’s weekly working time decreased between 2012 and 2017 by a quarter of an hour to 41 hours and 7 minutes. In the same period the average annual holiday time grew from 5.05 to 5.14 weeks, which translates into an increase by 0.4 days. People work most in the primary sector, which is agriculture and forestry. Here the average weekly working time is 45 hours and 35 minutes. Compared with the average weekly working time in 28 EU member states, the Swiss work longer hours because in the EU people work, on average, 39 hours and 24 minutes per week.
Inter-Industry Wage Differentials
In 2016 the average pay was 6502 Swiss francs. The best-paid jobs can be found in the pharmaceutical industry, where you are paid, on average, 9835 Swiss francs, followed by financial services (9742 Swiss francs), IT (8900 Swiss francs) and insurance (8762 Swiss francs). At the bottom of the list there was retail with 4798 Swiss francs, hospitality with 4337 Swiss francs and ‘other personal services’ with an average wage of 4076 Swiss francs. This latter group includes, among others, laundry and hairdresser’s personnel.
The gender gap continues to exist. In 2016 the wage differential between women and men was 12%, which, compared with 2015, meant a decrease by 0.5%. In management positions, the difference was somewhat larger, amounting, on average, to 18.5%. Sixty per cent of jobs with a gross monthly wage of less than 4500 Swiss francs are held by women, whereas 83.3% of positions with a monthly remuneration exceeding 16,000 Swiss francs belong to men.
Source: Federal Statistical Office
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