Gross vs Net Salary in Switzerland: What Lands

On a CHF 100'000 gross salary in Switzerland, roughly CHF 13'250 goes to social insurance — AHV/IV/EO, unemployment, accident cover and your pension fund — before a single franc of tax is calculated. Income tax then takes somewhere between about 11 and 22 per cent of gross depending on your canton. Health insurance is billed separately and never leaves your payslip.

Run that through Zurich and a contract worth CHF 100'000 pays out around CHF 69'550 across the year, close to CHF 5'800 a month. Once the premium has gone too, roughly CHF 5'400 is actually yours.

What is deducted from a Swiss salary before it reaches your account?

Four line items sit on almost every Swiss payslip: AHV/IV/EO, ALV, non-occupational accident insurance and the BVG pension contribution. On CHF 100'000 gross they take roughly CHF 13'250 a year, and they are identical in Zug and Geneva because the rates are federal.

Income tax is the fifth item. With a Swiss passport or a C permit nothing is withheld: you file a return and the canton invoices you. If you are taxed at source — Quellensteuer, impôt à la source — a tax line appears, already blending all three layers.

The sixth item never appears on a payslip. Health insurance is a contract between you and an insurer, and every adult pays their own.

How much do AHV, ALV and accident cover take from CHF 100'000?

AHV/IV/EO takes 5.3% of gross with no upper limit: CHF 5'300 here, CHF 15'900 on a CHF 300'000 salary. Your employer matches it.

ALV, the unemployment contribution, is 1.1% — but only on salary up to CHF 148'200. On CHF 100'000 that is CHF 1'100; above the ceiling the effective percentage falls.

Non-occupational accident insurance (NBU / AANP) covers the ski injury and the Sunday bike crash. Your employer negotiates the rate, so it varies by industry, but typically lands around 1.3% — CHF 1'300 here. Accidents at work are covered separately, at the employer's cost.

What those first-pillar francs buy is set out by the Swiss OASI/AHV information centre: an old-age pension, disability insurance, and compensation for lost earnings during service and parental leave.

How does the BVG pension deduction actually work?

Not on your whole salary. The BVG/LPP second pillar applies to the coordinated salary: gross minus a fixed coordination deduction, the slice AHV already covers. Your pension certificate names that deduction and the percentage charged on what is left.

The employee rate rises in age bands — low while you are young, steeper near retirement — and in the middle bands typically sits around 7% to 8% of the coordinated salary. The worked example below assumes a coordinated salary of CHF 74'000 and a 7.5% rate: CHF 5'550 a year, about CHF 460 a month. Those are our assumptions, not a universal rate. A 25-year-old pays visibly less on the same gross, someone at 58 visibly more — which is why two employers can quote identical gross and hand you pension certificates CHF 200 a month apart.

What does CHF 100'000 gross actually leave you?

Here is the whole chain for a single person in Zurich, in a municipality with an average tax multiplier, no children, no special deductions:

The five payroll items add up to CHF 30'450, leaving CHF 69'550 — about CHF 5'800 a month. Subtract the premium and you are at roughly CHF 5'400. That is the number worth holding against rent, not the CHF 8'333 the contract appears to promise.

This is general information about how the Swiss system works, not individual advice — your canton, municipality and situation change the numbers.

Why do two people on the same salary take home different amounts?

Because two of the six are local: income tax and the premium depend on where you live, the four social-insurance rates do not. Take Zug against Geneva. On our working figures the effective total tax burden on CHF 100'000 is 11.4% in Zug and 21.8% in Geneva — CHF 11'400 against CHF 21'800. Add an indicative adult premium of CHF 348 a month in Zug and CHF 453 in Geneva, and the Zug resident ends the year on about CHF 71'174 after tax, social insurance and health cover, against CHF 59'514 in Geneva. That is close to CHF 11'660 a year, near CHF 970 a month, on identical contracts. These are indicative values our planner uses, not official statistics.

The canton is only half of it: each municipality sets its own multiplier, so two towns twenty minutes apart can differ by several points. Same logic that makes grocery prices vary by canton, with far more at stake. Run your salary through an official cantonal calculator for the exact municipality before you sign.

Why is the health premium the item newcomers miss?

Because almost everywhere else it comes off the payslip. Basic insurance under the KVG/LAMal is compulsory for every resident, every adult pays their own premium, children hold their own.

What you control is the shape of the contract, not the cover. Basic cover is identical by law at every insurer, so only price and service differ. You pick an annual franchise of CHF 300, 500, 1'000, 1'500, 2'000 or 2'500, above which you pay a 10% retention capped at CHF 700 a year for adults. And you pick a model: standard with free choice of doctor, or a family-doctor, HMO or Telmed model that trades some of that freedom for a lower premium.

A high franchise is a bet on your own year, so nobody can make that choice for you. The price, though, is not a matter of opinion: the Federal Office of Public Health premium comparison (Priminfo) lists every approved premium for your municipality, age, franchise and model.

What is left for groceries and the rest of the month?

Back to the single person in Zurich on roughly CHF 5'400 a month. On our working figures a 3.5-room flat in the city runs around CHF 2'800, plus about CHF 120 for a transport pass — leaving roughly CHF 2'480 for everything else.

The average Swiss household spends about CHF 636 a month on food and non-alcoholic drinks. Side by side, groceries are around 12% of what actually lands — very different from the 7.6% you get by dividing CHF 636 by the gross monthly figure. That gap is why measuring groceries against net income is the only version of the sum that means anything.

It also explains why food feels like the pressure point though it is not the biggest line. Rent, tax and premiums are fixed for the year. Groceries are the one large cost you can move week by week — and where price changes show up first.

How do you work out your own figure?

1. Start with the annual gross, 13th salary included, then subtract 5.3% for AHV/IV/EO and 1.1% for ALV — CHF 6'400 gone on CHF 100'000.
2. Find the accident line on a real payslip. The NBU rate is your employer's, not a national figure.
3. Read your pension certificate for the coordination deduction, the coordinated salary and your age-band percentage. It is the only reliable source for the BVG figure.
4. Run your canton and exact municipality through an official tax calculator. Never settle for a cantonal average.
5. Add your health premium separately. It is not on the payslip, which is why it quietly breaks budgets built from net salary alone.
6. Divide by twelve and hold it against your rent. Above a third, the budget will feel tight however carefully you shop.

Knowing what lands in your account is half the question; the other half is whether the gross figure was right to begin with. The career module, Phase 2 of Eini's roadmap, will benchmark your salary against the Swiss market for your role, industry, years of experience and canton. It will read your skills, education and CV to name your realistic next step, show the gap between what you have and what that role asks for, and estimate whether a given course or certification pays for itself. Groceries and meal planning are what is live today.