What is your salary in Zurich?Are you happy with it and do you have a comfortable life according to the Zurich prices and standards?

Sufficient for our modest needs, yes and yes.

I perhaps could get more in London or Frankfurt but then what about taxes and quality of life etc?

Edit: What am I on about? Happy with what I'm paid? I want more! For less work!

Do you get a 13th Salary? Is this standard in Zurich,or even all over Switzerland?

is the vote for personal income or total household income?

Very happy with my salary thank you, my standard of living is great. But I would prefer a shorter working week. I really don't think that 8.5 hours a day is more productive than 7.5.

I haven't had a 13th salary for quite some time. It was abolished at my place some 10 years ago.

Good salary paid by myself and earning every cent of it. Likely to reduce to a four-day 40-hour week shortly in order to reduce the commuting.
dave

[is the vote for personal income or total household income?[/quote]

Just for a fair comparison, it would be nice for us singles if everyone posted their personal incomes.

Yes, I think 13th month salary is a standard in Switzerland. I would also like to cut back my 42 hour week by five hours. I worked 37 hour weeks in Finland and was just as productive as here

there isn't an option for a big fat ZERO per month

[quote=Mikey]Very happy with my salary thank you, my standard of living is great.

What IS this standard of living everyone is talking about in Switzerland anyway?! To me there is very littel difference, if any, compared with the Nordic countries.

(Ok, I know this is off the salary topic, but this "slogan" always makes me wonder... )

A good question, one which crossed my mind when I was thinking about how I spend an average day. Theres a lake and mountains. Stuff works, and its clean.

Whether that is enough to warrant a sacrifice to live here depends on the person. Personally I don't seem to have any time to make the most of it.

dave

The poll is for personal income, not household income...

Good question. I use my own measure. A combination of personal debt, disposable income and the level of taxation for the cash side of things. On the personal side I look at my commute, levels of cleanliness and the fact that the transport system actually works over here. It's all very much my opinion as opposed to any published statistics.

I'm definately happy with the salary vs cost of living here, although being a single bloke and having no bills, my largest outgoing is beer

For judging standard of living, i think you have to go on your feelings as much as possible. How happy are you being here or there? eg, I was probably happier getting a dodgy bus to Bondi Beach than i am getting a nice Swiss train to the Alps!

I altered the name of this poll, to be more reflective of the question asked.

If you're looking to get an idea what people are making to see if you're making too little, asking for the right amount, etc. then what someone in Solothurn or in Geneva or Basel won't be helpful.

I also added the "none" option for those who don't earn a salary.

As this month is my first "normal" pay packet, it's hard to say if I'm better or worse off financially. By the end of next month I'll have a better idea. But I noticed I had only 25% deducted, whereas in the UK I was paying 31%.

But when I add in the UK Council Tax, that's around another 3%.

Just before I moved here, Sterling jumped from 2.2 to 2.35 CHF to the pound. That felt like a pay cut, but I realise that's not the way to think about it. It's local buying power that counts.

Watch those deductions... Many people say "gee the tax is so low", but remember stuff gets deducted before the tax even comes into it - remember also that your health insurance and many other things would most likely have been already included in your tax in the UK, whereas here they are extra (and you have to pay them one way or the other). Then of course theres always the bill for the federal tax which comes when it has been forgotten.. (for those on C permits and Swiss passports). Switzerland is actually a medium tax country, not a low tax country as many seem to think (unless you compare it to a high tax country and then it seems low).

Perhaps more importantly - have I missed something, but does this poll ask about before tax/deductions (gross) or after tax/deductions (net) income?

A little off topic but another reson to watch the deductions if you are on a B permit is to make sure that the tax is being taken at the correct rate. At my present job and also one previously the correct amount of tax is/was not being deducted. I have to put money aside each month to cover the tax bill at tax time, my husband has a C permit so we have to do tax return each year anyway.

I'm sorry I just have to complain, it has been really nagging me since I saw the results of the poll which shows a lot of people earning more than 13,000chf...how can people earn more than 13,000chf per month?! Is it possible to spend ? I am most probably in the wrong profession. My parents should have advised me to take finance or computer science....I'm in the wrong profession Sorry, just wondering....

The poll is for monthly gross salaries, irrespective of where you live in Switzerland.

Back in the Swiss contracting hay days of the late 90's salaries that high and indeed much higher salaries were common place. I worked with several developers earning CHF250 per hour, unfortunatley I only ran the network so couldn't earn anywhere near that figure. Such high salaries are not so common now but they are around. And yes it is more than possible to spend that much and more. Many of said developers spent their weekends jetting around Europe staying in 5 star hotels.