Details, details, details:

The salary given for the baker is the one for a master craftsman ("mit Meisterdiplom) so he or she is more experienced, usually older and has additional training and passed the relevant exams (he could teach his trade to others officially).

The salary for the butcher is for someone freshly out of the apprenticeship ("ab erstem Berufsjahr")

What about a pilot, who has the lives of many in their hands, "only" getting around 10k per month?
The same as a medium level accountant, and less than many of the first-timers on here, asking if they are earning enough..

I find it hard to believe that these salaries are for real?

Let's just recap to make sure that I understand it correctly:
These salaries are gross paid monthly? If so I will stop moaning about mine, I always considered myself slightly underpaid in the industry I work in but looking at those I will just shut up as it looks that are earn more than 85% of buggers here!

Can anyone confirm these salaries to be true please, so that we can have piece of mind. I am not a butcher, baker, clergyman, "funker", f.u.er, sucker, policeman or anything from the above. So, I cannot shed some light if it is true or not...

A Funker is a guy who transmits radio.

And the salaries are real. I know of several hairdressers who make just under 3000 a month. Like I said, my sister gets paid less than 4000 a month for a full-time job and it's still more than she would have earned in the job she originally wanted to do.

This is why I very rarely comment on any "is my salary enough" threads, they just make me too angry...

I've heard many times that the average Swiss salary is around 60k. According to this link (random Google link, can't vouch for the veracity), the average is actually 68k. Therefore, these numbers seem realistic to me.

So yes, I would expect that many of us expats are significantly above the average salary, and yes, we can all shut up about it. ;-)


People who ask those kinds of questions may be a bit dense, but the fact that your sister earns peanuts is hardly reason to get upset at someone who earns more.

Remember that, if you are anything like the other on here, you are an "ausländer" getting a job in a country where you do not speak the language as well as a local. According to the rules of getting a B permit (in my day) it was that the company had looked at the local candidates, and none were good enough, so they had to hire a foreigner.
But aren't those also the rules in the US?

My PhD salary doesn't seem so bad anymore

That's really quite shocking... maybe that's why salaries in CH as so in taboo, no one wants to admit how little they get paid? And I always thought that foreigners get paid less than the swiss here. Well, in my job we always say that a swiss would never do this job for the money we get(certainly more than 42 hr week, plenty of unpaid overtime - but a bonus can be quite generous). Maybe it's that the swiss clearly separate work/private life while we foreigners (and US/UK predominantly) integrate the two into one, hence more financial reward for it

Damn, knew I should have become a vet.

I frankly do not resent this at all. It is called "supply and demand". Bereiter is somebody working with horses all day. I know a lot of people who actually SPEND money to ride horses instead of getting paid. So I can imagine that there will be enough people willing to do their dreamjob for relatively little money...

who wants to be average? just think how stupid someone of average intelligence is, or how ugly someone of average beauty is.

in the UK, it's not hard to shoot for a salary that is 4-5 times higher than the median salary. in switzerland that would be a lot more difficult.

I'm not angry at them for earning more, I'm angry that they are too thick to compute "average salary, for an average, there are also a lot of people earning below this average, mine is twice the average, so really, I'm pretty lucky". My sister likes her new job, she can take her dog with her to work and she still lives at home but wants to move out. Thing is, she can't afford most of the apartments because, well, here salary is below average...

Not really. Directors / associate partners at Big 4 firms earn into that range, and there are many people I know of in the finance sector middle management who do as well. Can't speak too much for other industries.

It would be pretty hard if you're working for an SME - but then, that's the same story in other countries.

well, i expect partners etc. to earn that. also in banking/finance/hedge funds.

but in the uk, i think an ~80k salary over ~20k median wasn't so unusual. certainly 60k was within reach for many.

here, i think median is around 70k and so 4 times that you're reaching for 280k or 210k for 3x.

the distribution seems to be a lot different (though this is just from my own observations, so what i see might not be representative).

49.999999 % of mankind actually are even below that degree of stupidity or ugliness. Go figure.

I know the occasional - very old, very experienced, very specialized - teacher that makes 150k. In business, it's quite possible to earn quite a bit more. I did the same math as you, and don't find it an unrealistic goal...

I think you're confusing average and median IQ

Yeah, I think the overall absence of "very poor" people, the lower class, in Switzerland leads to such relations between median and average salaries. Overall, more economic equality.

A friend of mine is a scientist and works for the blood donor centre in Aargau, she is around 55 years old and earns about 150,000 per year. My son is a newly qualified electrician and was offered CHF 4,600 per month in Bern.

The OP published tables are only an example. The salaries for a job vary widely with experience and location, you need to look a bit deeper to get an accurate picture.

To Phil MCR, it is not easy to change jobs here. People from another canton are treated suspiciously, for some jobs (e.g. Pharmacist) you need to apply for permission to practise in that canton. If you are a baker, how do you get to the next town at 4 am? And from the EF you know how difficult it is to find decent accomodation in another city.