My wife and I picked up an application form for an apartment yesterday evening.

One section invites the applicants to state their salaries. The tick boxes go as follows:

30 000 - 40 000 ( )
40 000 - 50 000 ( )
50 000 - 60 000 ( )
60 000 - 70 000 ( )
Mehr ( )


You may draw your own conclusions about how normal people live in this country.

Was this in Canton Jura?

I would need another lower bracket.

Like I said elsewhere - this is Switzerland, not Disneyland.

The normal people of this country live on far less than 120000CHF that's for sure.

Many expats are blind to that fact. I remember having dinner with a group not too long ago. I did the usual round my bill up as the waitress had been quite friendly despite getting some abuse from a member of the group. Said member didn't round up and commented that she was probably one of the best paid waitresses in the world. I was scorned at when I said she probably earns less than 3500CHF a month and told "nobody earns that little in Switzerland"

Do you think that there is an ivory tower of expats who have absolutely no idea how the majority of people live?

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speak up, we can't hear you from up here

Maybe it's just the range of salaries that the landlords consider appropriate for the rental of the property. Any less than 30000 then you can't afford it. Anymore than 70000 then you earn too much and should look for a more expensive place.

That's not as funny as it sounds as I've heard rumours of people being declined simply because the landlord reckoned they earned too much.

Per month?

More seriously, I would imagine that a family income of 50k would be pretty difficult.

Well, I used to work in a bar and the hourly rate was one of the higher ones at CHF 22.-, with tips it came up to about CHF 32.-. Now if you have ever worked in a restaurant or bar, you know it's a pretty hard job that you can't do for eight hours a day without ending up utterly exhausted. So if I receive good service, I always tip and I am also quite tolerant if I have to wait a little. If someone is rude to me, I ask if they are having a bad day. Sometimes this makes a lot of difference, sometimes they are then extra rude, in which case I don't tip.

I've heard of that, but in this case I doubt it: it's just a standard format form from the letting agency.

Thanks DB for this sensible thread. I'm sometimes quite taken aback by the "is so much enough" threads.
There are people who must live with very little and feed a family.
It can get down to the options like: buying a bus fare or having breakfast (breakfast on not more than 2 SFr.. yup it is possible).

It must have been quite heavy ?

I also was dumbstruck finding out that not all the locals make 6-digit salaries here. Although expats come with their families and one of the spouses usually is trailing, so split one salary in two, but we still are better off than many other folks here.

Don't think it's swiss or expat thing, you see this attitude everywhere and it seems to be getting worse.

Given that the salary ranges stated are those that the majority of people Switzerland would find themselves in, then I think that there's almost certainly some salary matching going on. If, for example, less than 70k means that you would be earning too little, then why have the letting agency specifically stated the ranges that they have?

Was this application only for English speaking folks, to let them know that they are too expensive for local standards and could live on much lower salaries... Little innuendo. Just wondering...

to make people feel good?, oh look, I'm not on the bottom scale

I don't understand the question... sorry!

Everything is/was in German - I gather English isn't a very commonly spoken language in the town to which we'd like to move.

You should read inbetween the lines... They usually pull this trick when they want you to integrate badly

^Are you off to Oberiberg? AKA, the place that voted 97% no to joining the EU.

No... we're hoping to live somewhere much more civilised... Glarnerland!

(The Congo would suit us too, but we can't afford it )