Highly qualified professionals entering the Swiss labor market or already working in Switzerland and thinking about changing jobs after having occupied the same employment for a long period time, may ask themselves, ‘what am I worth now on the Swiss market?’


Below, we provide some benchmark figures, which of course depend strongly on the sector of the economy one is working in and the level of post occupied.


The average monthly salary in Switzerland (all sectors taken together) is slightly more than CHF 5,600, roughly CHF 68,000 annually.
For entry level executives, the range is roughly from CHF 4500 (for the restaurant and hotel field – notoriously underpaid) to about CHF 9000/month (for example in the PTT).
For upper level executives, the average monthly salary is usually between CHF 5300 (hotel/restaurant) and CHF 19,000 (Pharmaceutical, Tobacco industry, Finance…)
Salaries in Switzerland by City


It is a serious mistake to simply convert monies and compare with whichever country you are coming from.
For a given job position, you can only compare salaries after you have taken into account such things as: cost of living in the country, and salary structure.
In Switzerland, the ration of net salary to gross salary is much more advanatageous than in the majority of EU countries. For example, the ratio is approximately 15% in Switzerland against 24% in France. Obviously, as such, for equal salaries in the to countries one’s net salary would be much higher in Switzerland.
In Switzerland, the social charges related to health insurance are often entirely at the expense of the employee (many large companies do offer health insurance as a benefit but they are not required to do so by law).
Salaries in Switzerland Grouped by Degree


You must therefore yourself, independently of your salary, pay for your obligatory health insurance.
To complete your evaluation, you might consult salary statistics from the Swiss government website pertaining in the sector in which you work, or the job function which interests you, or post an inquiry to this website,
Consider as well that salaries vary greatly in Switzerland from canton to canton, with Zurich and Geneva and Basel having the highest salaries, and the highest costs of living. Ticino, the Italian speaking part of Switzerland, has, on the other hand, relatively low salaries. However, many people appreciate the lifestyle in Ticino.
Other popular Swiss cities are Bern (one of the first Swiss cities to have a Starbucks) , Lausanne, Neuchatel, Yverdon, and Zug.
Salaries in Switzerland Grouped by Sector of the Economy