“What salary should I request for a job in Switzerland?” — it’s a question a lot of people from outside Switzerland try to answer. Salaries in Switzerland are higher than elsewhere? Myth or reality?

Most surveys estimate that salaries in Switzerland for skilled workers are generally two or three times higher than in most other European countries. In 2006, the salary in Switzerland averaged 5674 Swiss Francs, it’s approximately 68k Swiss francs per year. So, Switzerland has a relatively high level of pay. However, the Swiss cost of living is also very high compared with countries in the EU.

For job positions like executives, experts, managers and specialists, the average salary ranges from 4700 (Hotels, Restaurant…) to 11,220 Swiss francs (banking and financial sector). The most qualified earn almost 7400 Swiss francs, averaging all sectors of activity together.

In 2006, the best salary was on the banking and financial sector but with the global economic crisis and recessionist tendencies, probably the average salary will go down. Though it isn’t certain since a lot of banks have been giving out bonuses during the crisis. Top management may have some trouble but since they earn a lot more than any employers one can’t predict the future salary in this sector.

You can’t convert you’re current salary to swiss francs, indeed… it’s the same job but you must take into account the cost of living in Switzerland. Your net pay will be higher in Switzerland than in France: all social security deductions – pension systems, unemployment insurance represent 13-15% of the salary and it’s about 23% in France.
In Switzerland, payroll taxes related to health insurance are paid in full by the company but you have to pay your contribution to health insurance (LaMal)… it’s mandatory so you need to purchase one.
Between 2005 and 2006, the salary has increased in Switzerland by 0.1% (all professions and sectors). Maybe you think, it’s the crisis in 2008 so we can use this statistics of the SFO (2006). Actually it’s right; some studies indicate for 2008 a pay increase of 2.6% over the previous year.
The government has made available on Internet some tools to calculate salary for a region
Salary in Geneva
Average Salary in Switzerland
If you’re a job seeker looking for an opportunity in Switzerland feel free to upload your CV on

Outside of the banks and finance companies, there are many sectors of the Swiss economy that are only minimally affected by the financial crisis and continue to show a growth of jobs in Switzerland.

Consider the case of Swiss pharmaceutical giant Novartis, based in Basel. A Spokesperson for Novartis said this week that Novartis has no exposure whatever to insolvent financial institutions. The group’s figures for the first three quarters show a 12% increase in profitability over last year for a total of $31.4 billion, and a net profit of $7.25 billion. Novartis’ profitability rose by 19% compared to the same period last years, with the 3rd quarter’s results 32% higher over last year’s. Most of the Swiss employment provided by Novartis are jobs in Basel.

The pharmaceutical giant owes its resplendent financial fortunes to the effects of change as well as its global restructuring, in which more than 2500 jobs (mainly outside of Switzerland) were eliminated worldwide.

The multinational drug company, which contributes to the considerable amount of research and engineering work in Basel, has recently been launching an array of new medicines to counter the pressures from the increasing number of generic drugs competing with established

pharmaceutical products. Over the last 9 months alone Novartis launched nearly 100 new drugs to offset the losses expected from generics competing with established patented medicines such as Diovan (for hypertension) which by itself is responsible for $5 billion in sales. Nonetheless, analysts say it will not be before 2010 that these new products will reach their full sales potentials. The increased revenue is expected to feed demand for increased research and development work in Switzerland.

Across the Atlantic, where like its competitors, Novartis got the green light from the American FDA, sales have declined a modest 4%. But Novartis has offset these modest declines with huge gains in emerging economies (+17%) as well as in Europe where sales are up 7%.

Analysts have expressed a bullish attitude on Novartis, noteworthy especially in this period of market turbulence, and continue to recommend buying Novartis stock, considered to be a strong long term investment. Wegelin bank analysts say the stock is a ‘sure value,’ and some analysts see the stock rising above CHF 70.

For Basel, Novartis continues to provide a large number of jobs in Basel and to contribute substantially to tax revenues.

The canton of Geneva occupies 0.6% of the surface area of Switzerland but employs roughly 8% of the salaried Work force in Switzerland and is responsible for a gross product of roughly $ 35 billion, roughly 8% of the Swiss GDP.

As to jobs, Geneva has practically a world record with approximately 2 jobs for three inhabitants (For a total population of about 450,000 there are 297,000 Jobs in Geneva). There are also roughly 75,000 cross border workers who work in Switzerland but live in neighboring France or Germany or Italy.

According to the Geneva Cantonal Bank’s statistics, the average salary in Geneva has continued to rise. During the 90’s, Geneva salaries were less than those in Zurich. However salaries in Geneva have now outstripped salaries in Zurich, with the average salary in Geneva now roughly CHF 6350, approximately 15% higher than the Swiss average, and about CHF 100 higher than Zurich’s average. The high average salaries for jobs in Geneva is largely explainable by the

high proportion of jobs in private banks, jobs in trading companies, and jobs in the financial services industries, all of which pull the salary statistics higher. Roughly 10% of workers in Geneva have salaries higher than CHF 12,400 per month.

Geneva is also the canton with the most glaring discrepancies between high salaries and low salaries.

In Geneva 85% of the small and medium size companies employ fewer than 10 persons. But over a third of the corporate landscape in Geneva (measured by number of jobs) is large multinational companies. Among the large employers of Geneva are the banks – UBS, Credit Suisse, BNP Paribas, HSBC, Pictet, Lombard Odier Darier Hentsch, Deutsche Bank,… - and then there are the luxury brands, and other multinationals, such as Rolex (4000 jobs), Proctor and Gamble (2500 jobs), Firmenich (1600 jobs), The Richemont Group (1400 jobs), Patek Philippe (1200 jobs), Merck Serono (1000 jobs), Givaudan (800 jobs), Chopard (700 jobs), Japan Tobacco (600 jobs), Franck Muller(600 jobs) and Du Pont(600 jobs).

The luxury watch industry alone brings in over $1 billion in annual revue to the canton of Geneva.