Contract, probation and notice

• There is no federal minimum wage

  Nothing sets a legal minimum at national level. Some cantons have introduced one of their own (among them Geneva, Neuchâtel, Jura, Ticino and Basel-Stadt), and in many industries the minimum is set by a collective labour agreement instead.

• The collective agreement matters more than you would expect

  Many industries — construction, hospitality, cleaning, retail, staff leasing — are covered by a collective labour agreement (CLA) that fixes minimum pay, working hours, allowances and notice periods. Where a CLA has been declared generally binding, those terms apply even if your individual contract says less.

• Probation lasts one month, not three

  If the contract says nothing, the probation period is one month. It can be extended to a maximum of three months only by written agreement. During probation the notice period is just seven days, on both sides.

• Notice periods grow with seniority

  Unless agreed otherwise: one month during the first year of service, two months from the second to the ninth year, three months from the tenth. Notice normally takes effect at the end of a calendar month, and what counts is the day your letter arrives, not the day you send it.

• You cannot be dismissed while you are ill

  After probation, notice given during illness, accident, military service, pregnancy or the sixteen weeks after birth is void. The protected period for illness and accident runs 30 days in the first year of service, 90 days from the second to the fifth, and 180 days from the sixth. If notice was already given, the clock pauses and resumes afterwards.

• A non-compete clause is easier to escape than it looks

  To bind you it must be in writing, you must have had genuine insight into clientele or trade secrets, and it must be limited in time, place and scope — three years being the outer limit. It also lapses entirely if the employer terminates you without a valid reason on your side.

• You are entitled to a written employer reference

  At the end of the employment relationship — and during it, on request — your employer must issue an Arbeitszeugnis, a reference describing your duties and performance. In Switzerland this is a key document: employers ask for one covering every previous job, so always keep copies.

• That reference has a house style worth decoding

  It must be truthful, but it must also be worded benevolently so as not to hinder your next job search. The result is a convention where criticism arrives in formally positive language, and where what is left out says as much as what is written.

  Hidden codes are not legally admissible, though: a reference has to be clear and unambiguous, and you can demand that an unfair or ambiguous one be corrected.

Hours, holiday and absence

• The legal maximum working week is long

  The law caps the week at 45 hours for office staff, technical staff and sales personnel in large retailers, and at 50 hours for other employees. In practice contractual hours are usually between 40 and 42.5.

• Overtime and excess hours are two different things

  Überstunden are hours beyond your contractual week but still within the legal cap. They carry a 25% premium — but a written agreement can replace it with time off in lieu, or state that your salary already covers them, which is extremely common.

  Überzeit means hours beyond the legal cap itself. There the 25% premium is a statutory entitlement that cannot be contracted away, although for office, technical and large-retail sales staff it only starts from the 61st such hour in a calendar year.

• The legal minimum holiday is four weeks

  At least four weeks a year, five for employees under twenty. Five weeks is common in better contracts, but it is not a general entitlement.

• Holiday cannot be cashed out

  While the employment relationship lasts, holiday has to be taken as time off — it may not be replaced by extra pay, even if both sides would prefer that. Untaken days are only paid out when you leave.

• Only one public holiday is federal

  1 August is the sole nationwide public holiday. Everything else — Christmas, Easter Monday, Whit Monday, local saints' days — is decided by the cantons, which may declare up to eight further days. So the number of days off genuinely depends on which canton you work in.

• Sick pay is limited, and the limit is vague

  If illness stops you working, your employer must keep paying your salary for a "limited period" — at least three weeks in the first year of service, and appropriately longer after that, with courts applying established scales. Many employers instead take out daily sickness benefit insurance, typically 80% of salary for up to 720 days. Check which of the two your contract relies on.

• Parental leave is short by European standards

  Maternity leave is 14 weeks at 80% of earnings, subject to a cap and to having been insured long enough beforehand. The other parent gets two weeks, to be taken within six months of the birth. There is no long shared parental leave scheme.

Pay, deductions and taxes

• Net pay is lower than it looks

  Deducted from the gross salary are old-age, disability and loss-of-earnings contributions (5.3% for the employee), unemployment insurance (1.1% up to the insured earnings ceiling), non-occupational accident insurance and pension fund contributions.

  On top of that — and this is the biggest surprise — health insurance is not deducted from your salary at all: you pay it yourself, separately.

• The 13th salary is not required by law

  It is very widespread, but it is a contractual benefit: it exists only if your individual contract, the collective agreement or established company practice provides for it. Watch out when comparing offers — a salary quoted "over 13 months" and one quoted "over 12" can add up to the same annual figure.

• The pension fund only kicks in above a threshold

  Mandatory second-pillar coverage starts above a minimum annual salary, updated periodically and currently around CHF 22,000. Below that figure, or when juggling several small part-time jobs, you risk building up no occupational pension at all.

• Your tax bill depends on the municipality you live in

  Tax is levied at three levels: federal, cantonal and communal. Two neighbouring municipalities can have very different rates, so on the same salary your disposable income changes depending on where you register your address.

• Cross-border and short-term workers are taxed at source

  If you are not resident in Switzerland, or hold a short-term permit, tax is normally withheld straight from your pay slip. Foreign residents on a B permit are subject to the same withholding.

• Above CHF 120,000 the tax return becomes compulsory

  B-permit holders taxed at source who reach that level of gross annual employment income are moved onto an ordinary assessment, meaning an actual tax return. That can cut either way: deductions become available, but so does a possible bill on top of what was already withheld. Budget for it in your first year at that level.

• Salaries are negotiated as annual figures

  Job ads and interviews almost always talk in gross Swiss francs per year, not per month. Before naming a number, check your profile against the official salary calculators: the gaps between cantons and industries are substantial.

Applying for a job

• Jobs are advertised as percentages

  An ad for an "80%" position means four days a week, and "80–100%" means the employer will discuss which. Part-time at this granularity is entirely normal at every level, including management, so the percentage is a negotiable term rather than a signal that the job is minor.

• The Swiss CV is dry, and it has a photo

  Two pages, reverse chronological order, exact start and end dates for every job, no marketing language. A professional photograph is still the norm, and stating your date of birth, nationality and permit type is considered normal rather than intrusive.

• The full dossier beats the CV on its own

  A "complete" Swiss application means a cover letter, a CV, and copies of employer references and diplomas attached. Putting together one tidy PDF immediately sets you apart from people who send two pages.

• Employers may ask for a debt register extract

  For roles involving money, keys or trust, it is common to be asked for an extract from the debt enforcement register — proof that no collection proceedings are running against you. You request it yourself from the local debt enforcement office, for a small fee. Landlords ask for it too.

• Many jobs are never advertised

  A substantial share of hiring happens through contacts, referrals and speculative applications. Writing directly to companies in your area, with no open vacancy, is accepted practice here and often works.

• Some professions need your qualification recognised

  Formal recognition of a foreign diploma is compulsory only for regulated professions: healthcare, teaching, legal professions, several technical trades. For everything else, what counts is what the employer considers equivalent. See the diploma resources.

• Registered job seekers see some vacancies first

  In occupations with above-average unemployment, employers must report vacancies to the public employment service, and for five working days they are visible only to registered job seekers. One more reason to sign up on job-room.ch.

Permits and practical life

• The permit letters have precise meanings

  L is short-term, B is an annual residence permit, C is permanent residence (after five or ten years), G is for cross-border commuters. The type of permit affects your taxes, your freedom to change jobs and family reunification.

• Health insurance is compulsory, individual and yours to pay

  You must take out a policy within three months of arriving, backdated to your date of entry: no cover comes automatically from your employer. Every family member needs their own policy, and premiums vary widely between insurers and cantons for basic benefits that are identical by law.

• Registering with your municipality is a deadline, not a formality

  Anyone settling in Switzerland has to register with the residents' office of their municipality, generally within fourteen days of arrival. Your permit, your tax status and your access to local services all follow from that registration.

• The language region changes everything

  Applications are written in the language of the advert. In German-speaking Switzerland you will need standard German to write, but interviews and coffee breaks happen in dialect: understanding it, even without speaking it, is a real advantage.

Leaving a job, or the country

• Unemployment benefit comes with conditions

  As a rule you need at least twelve months of contributions in the last two years, residence in Switzerland, and registration with your regional employment centre. Register straight away, ideally before your job actually ends.

• Resigning voluntarily costs you waiting days

  If you give notice without another position lined up, the unemployment insurance imposes suspension days before payments start — the reasoning being that you caused your own unemployment. The same applies if you turn down a suitable job the employment centre offers you.

• You cannot always take your pension savings with you

  If you leave Switzerland for an EU or EFTA country where you are covered by compulsory social insurance, the mandatory portion of your second-pillar savings cannot be paid out in cash. It moves to a vested benefits account and stays there until close to retirement age.

  Moving outside the EU/EFTA generally does allow a full cash withdrawal. Either way the money is not lost — but the difference between the two situations is worth understanding before you sign anything.