Can anybody point me to a thread about the 13 month salary often given in Switzerland. I have tried the search function but without success.

I personally don't get the 13 month salary but my employer uses a performance based bonus which generally equates to less than an extra month payment.

I would like to find out how often the 13 month salary is used and how it is calculated. I have heard various explanations!

Thanks!

I used to get 13th month salary but not any longer. It's quite simple your salary is divided into 13 instead of 12 and you get double salary in December. It's not a bonus however some unscruplous employers try to pretend it is. The explanation I heard most often is that it's supposed to pay your tax bill.

Do you have a specific question?

Well my partner's salary is split into 12 then in June he gets half a month bonus on top of the normal wage and in December the other half.

My salary is split into 12 and my boss told me we don't have a 13 month salary but a "bonus" which could equate to an extra month salary.

Then ,as you say some people just get their yearly salary split into 13 rather than 12, but still get the same in the end.

I just wondered what the norm was.

My company does 13 months with the extra in December, I find it handy since so many bills come due right at the start of the year - insurance, rail pass, etc. not to mention that post-Christmas credit card bill!

For us, when joining we negotiate an annual salary, paid in 13 instalments. The 13th payment is made together with the 12th and is guaranteed. Bonuses, when given are a 14th payment and are NOT guaranteed.

One explanation I've head for the the 13 payments is that historically salaries were paid every 4 weeks rather than at the end of each month. There are 52 weeks in a year which if divided by 13 makes 4 whereas divided by 12 makes 4.3333.

ha so for the 13th months salary it's a bit of a scam then?
I mean if you negociate for example 100 000chf annual, you wont get:

100 000/12= 8333.33 chf per months but: 100 000/13= 7692.30...?
Kind of...

I mean you will still get 100 000th at the end as opposed to a "13th month" adding 8333chf, like total 108 333chf...

Scam? No. Forced saving? Sure!

NOPE!!! It means that every month you get 100,000/13, apart for December, when you get double that. Is it not clear?

Actually it is very important to know exactly your annual income. If you are in a 12 month salary and don't say explicitly in certain forms (childcare springs to mind... but I guess any payments that are means tested), they will assume that you are in a 13 month salary, and WILL CHARGE YOU MORE (you will probably fall in a higher payment band). Beware then.

hm...
no?
oh yes...
Just made the calculations, it's total of 100 000chf at the end with that!

My Basel-based company also divides my annual salary in 13 installments. We get the 13th month in November actually (which is pretty handy for christmas shopping). Besides this we get in March a bonus depending on our performance and how the company did. The bonus depends on your salary (a percentage of it). Some years you get more than others.
Nevertheless, next year our company will stop the 13th month thing and will divide salary in 12.

Angela

I get 13 installments, 11 dec-oct and double in nov, they say it's for Xmas presents :-)

Have a look at these threads:

13th month salary, How it works?
13th month

I love the 13 months salary system. Seems to me that whatever money comes in each month is what you live to, and we're on PAYE for tax, so when Bumper December comes the spare goes straight into 3rd pillar pension and other savings without us feeling that we have to scrimp in order to save.

And like others have said, it's just the annual salary divided by 13, with 2 lumps paid in December (in our case).

kodokan

It feels a little bit "scam"-y. It effectively means your employer will hang on to 1/13th of the money they owe you each month until the end of the year.

Swiss employers are not *required* to do this and not all do, even though some companies will claim that *all* Swiss employers do.

I believe in other countries it is negotiated to have been over and above your contractual salary. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thirteenth_salary

If you leave a company mid year, will they give you your 13th salary pro rata? I've read through my contract and that point isn't clear

yes.

btw: my company is switching from 13 payments to 12 from the next year on. Lucky me, it will save a couple of hundreds on taxes (the tax-at-source rate for the double-paid month is just ridiculous).
This must be an old-school Swiss way to pay the taxes, but even for the Swiss: it comes too late and it's not enough anymore.

IIRC the 13th salary was intended to help non-management employees with their taxes. In the good old days there was no tax withholding but these people were so incapable of managing their money they needed this.

Probably an urban myth, but traditionally it wasn’t paid to management.

Good job necroing an 11 year old thread.

No, it's true, though has nothing to do with management/non-management, and withholding is only for foreigners who don't have a C permit nor a Swiss spouse.

Swiss normally pay there taxes at the end of the year (I always do).

Tom