Since a picture is worth a thousand words - here is a picture:



Legend:

Bruttoeinkommen - gross income, income before taxes

Armutgrenze - poverty line
Unterschicht - lower class
Mittelstand - middle class
Oberschicht - upper class

Einpersonenhaushalt - single person household
Alleinerziehend mit 1 Kind - single parent with 1 child
Paar ohne kind - couple without children
Paar mit 2 Kindern - couple with 2 children

V.

I assume that one kind soul will translate that for people who dont speak German. I sort of got it but i cant see where it makes references in money

Best thread title ever.

This is totally not what I expected....

Win!

One interesting thing about these figures is that a previously-well paid single person still comes towards the top end of the "middle-class" band even on unemployment benefit (which is capped at about 7,000 CHF a month).

I'm not sure if this says more about the generosity of the State or about just how many middle-class Swiss people are living perfectly well on what a lot of expats would consider to be "low" salaries.

Whoopsie, just hovering above the poverty line, must see the manager about that raise.

It's interesting that the income level to be above poverty if significantly higher for a couple with a kid than for a single parent. Due to the insane lunch time regime here and cost of childcare I would think that would be reversed in the real world.

And this numers are salary by month, before or after taxes?
Make a huge diference for me. From being in the middle of the Mittelstand to the border of Unterschicht!!

By month, before taxes.

Brutto is gross salary

My guess is that this also takes into consideration potential tax deductions.

Ha Ha !!!

I opened this hoping to be entertained by reading all the sledges and insults directed at the OP........

...... but your thread is excellent !!!

I'm sure you're right, but the reality I hear from several Swiss families and personal experience says it still doesn't matter. The 'second' income in a dual income family gets taxed more heavily, yes, and at least around here you pay childcare on a sliding scale based on income.

But a dual income family, even paying more taxes and higher childcare costs still come out better than a single parent who is paying the minimum childcare costs. Add in the inflexibility of timetables- I think it is much harder for a single parent here to keep their head above water much less have a comfy middle class lifestyle. Much easier for a couple to juggle lunchtimes and sick kids and such than a single parent, the single parent will always have to fork out cash to compensate when they are physically unable to look after their child during working hours.

then, if this graph is before taxes in not that good. As the diferences of taxes paied by people are huge. I pay much more taxes than some of my collegues...

I need an increment of salary.

Me too, now that it's confirmed this could signal the end :-(

Guys,

it's just a graph


I'm not taking a shot at either of you, but we know there will be a million exceptions to the rule, so best not to take this too seriously and just appreciate it as a consolidated answer to the 11.2Billion threads asking about salary.

Just to clear something up

Poverty




NOT poverty

Thanks vastor, I was actually going to ask why oh why another thread like this was created but I will eat my words

In principal, yes. Though that really doesn't work when comparing economic terms.

The issue is that the class-zones are relative. I don’t believe that this has anything to do with “ease of life”, but more so with relative wealth.

So, yes, I am fully aware that a single parent struggles - but at the end of the day, in economic terms, the average child does not cost the equivalent to the average adult. Add to that the tax deduction potential of a child vs. and adult and you end up with a lower deviation to the class barrier.

You also can't compare the income classes of the world inclusively for a usable rate. We are in Switzerland after all, the only thing you would get from such a graph is that we all reside in the top 2% for the world - and how can you use that to compare to your neighbour?

__________________
The red blobs are all mine, you can't have 'em back!!! Bwahahaha!!!

Why did you have to post a picture like that? It caught me offguard. Im holding back my tears now thank you very much.