Employer of record in Switzerland: costs, rules and how to hire

The written terms matter less in Switzerland than the agreement sitting above them, because a generally binding collective agreement can set salary floors, hours, leave and pension for the role regardless of what the contract says. For a leased assignment into a business covered by such an agreement, the agency must comply with its wage and working-time provisions along with specified contribution duties. Ask which staff-leasing and client-sector rules apply to this role and this classification before you agree a salary.

Start with the agreement and written terms

For an indefinite contract, or one lasting more than a month, the employer must provide written information within one month of the start: the parties, start date, role, salary and supplements, and weekly hours. Changes to those particulars must also be provided within a month. Agree the complete terms before the start date anyway, covering location, leave, notice, insurance and expenses, because the statutory minimum is a floor rather than a template.

Staff-leasing arrangements carry their own written requirements, normally both a worker contract and a client contract covering the assignment, hours, pay, deductions, benefits and termination terms. The notice schedule is the part that surprises people: for indefinite assignments the statutory minimum can be two days during the first three months and seven days during the next three. Check the applicable collective agreement and the contract before applying ordinary monthly notice. The law also restricts charges to workers and clauses blocking a later direct hire by the client.

Choose the contract term and probation

A genuine fixed-term contract normally ends on its agreed date without notice, and if the parties tacitly continue it, it becomes indefinite. Repeated fixed terms used to avoid employment protections can be abusive, though a fixed term is not automatically unlawful merely because it lacks a special project reason. Check any early-termination clause and the agency rules before treating an expiry date as your exit plan.

For ordinary indefinite employment the first month is the default probation period, with seven days' notice. Written agreement, a standard employment contract or a collective agreement can vary the terms, but probation cannot exceed three months, and certain absences extend it. Staff-leasing rules and the applicable agreement need their own check, since the ordinary rule is not a universal agency notice schedule.

Protect confidential information and work-product rights

The employee's duty of loyalty includes protecting business secrets, and inventions and designs created in the course of contractual duties belong to the employer under the Code of Obligations. Other work-related inventions reserved by written agreement have separate acquisition and compensation rules. Identify how the actual employer transfers the required rights to your business, and assess software and copyright separately rather than assuming one clause covers both.

A non-compete must be in writing and requires access to customers or to business or manufacturing secrets whose use could substantially harm the employer. Limit its geography, time and activity: duration normally cannot exceed three years without special circumstances, and courts can reduce an excessive restriction. There is no universal statutory requirement to pay 50% of salary during a restriction, and the reason employment ended can make it lapse altogether.

Misclassification risk, and who assesses it

Switzerland looks past the contract to the arrangement, and the assessment is made by the social insurance authorities rather than only by a court. Our approved Swiss guidance puts it directly: an employment contract concerns work in the employer's service for salary, and the authorities assess the actual relationship, including supervision, integration into the organisation and entrepreneurial risk. The contract's label does not decide the result. Source: the approved Swiss contractor guidance, Code of Obligations via fedlex.admin.ch, checked 18 September 2026.

Entrepreneurial risk is the criterion worth dwelling on, because it is the one a hirer can see in advance. A person who invoices you monthly for their time, has no other clients, uses your equipment and carries no risk of loss is not running a business, whatever the contract is called. Supervision and integration then confirm what the risk test already suggested.

What a hirer does about it: check the employment and social insurance status before treating someone who works as part of your team as an independent supplier, which is what our own guidance advises, and do it before the engagement rather than after a review. The contribution consequences of a reclassification land on the employer.

Two of the items below can stop a hire outright rather than cost you money: the staff-leasing licence and the worker's existing eligibility. The rest are budget and process problems that get discovered on the first payslip or the first exit. Work through them before the offer goes out, not after.

Resolve these points before signing the offer

Ask the provider to answer each of these in the employment terms and the cost breakdown, in writing.

The last row catches out more remote teams than any other. An A1 certificate settling social insurance tells you nothing about where the person's income is taxed, and the two questions have to be answered separately.

Employer and employee each pay 6.4% below the unemployment-insurance ceiling in 2026, which is genuinely low, and it is also genuinely incomplete. Occupational pension, accident insurance, family-fund charges and administration are all outside that figure, and for many roles they are larger than it. Treat 6.4% as the part that can be stated precisely and the rest as the part a provider has to price for the actual role.

Core payroll contributions in 2026

The rates below apply to ordinary covered employment and exclude pension, accident insurance, family funds and administration. Age and international coverage can change the calculation.

In short, each side pays 5.3% for old-age, disability and income-compensation insurance without a salary ceiling, and 1.1% unemployment insurance on salary up to CHF 148,200 a year, or CHF 12,350 a month. Special coverage and age rules can change that.

Other payroll costs and remittances

The pension line is the one to price first, because it varies most between plans and it starts lower than people expect.

Mandatory occupational pension coverage generally starts when annual salary from the same employer exceeds CHF 22,680, subject to statutory exceptions, with risk coverage starting after age 17 and old-age savings after age 24. In 2026 the standard coordination deduction is CHF 26,460 and the upper salary limit CHF 90,720. Plan costs vary, and the employer's total contributions must at least match employees' total contributions, so ask for the actual insured salary and plan rather than one universal payroll percentage.

Employees are insured against occupational accidents, and those working at least eight hours a week for the same employer also have non-occupational accident coverage under that employment. The employer pays occupational accident premiums while non-occupational premiums are generally borne by the employee. Premiums depend on the insurer and risk, and the 2026 maximum insured salary is CHF 148,200.

Family-allowance financing depends on the canton and the compensation fund, so it belongs in the quote as its own line. Employee contributions are not generally charged, though Valais has one, and administration charges need their own allowance. Payroll must remit contributions to the relevant compensation office, pension institution and accident insurer, so do not assume one tax-office payment covers everything.

Employee income tax and business taxes

Employee income tax depends on federal, cantonal and communal rules and on the person's circumstances, which is why a single flat Swiss employee tax rate is misleading. Tax at source generally applies to foreign residents without a C settlement permit, with exceptions such as an unseparated marriage to a Swiss citizen or C-permit holder resident in Switzerland, and workers resident abroad have separate source-tax and treaty rules. Use the current canton's payroll tariff and the person's actual details.

On the business side, the federal corporate profit-tax rate is 8.5% with cantonal and communal taxes in addition, so it is not one combined national company-tax rate. The standard VAT rate is 8.1%, with reduced and accommodation rates for qualifying supplies. Both are separate from payroll deductions, and the EOR invoice's tax treatment and any business tax exposure need their own check.

Pension and health cover

Mandatory occupational pension coverage generally starts when annual salary from the same employer exceeds CHF 22,680, subject to statutory exceptions, with risk coverage from after age 17 and old-age savings from after age 24. In 2026 the standard coordination deduction is CHF 26,460 and the upper salary limit CHF 90,720. Plan costs vary and the employer's total contributions must at least match employees' total contributions, so ask for the actual insured salary and plan.

Swiss compulsory health-care insurance uses premiums paid by insured individuals, with public premium reductions where eligible. It is not an employer-and-employee 50/50 payroll contribution, and assuming otherwise inflates a budget by a large margin. Check the person's residence and coverage obligations, and identify any employer-funded medical benefit separately from occupational accident insurance and sickness-income cover.

Finally, ask the provider to price any extra leave, salary top-ups or additional insurance promised in the offer, and make sure the employment contract, the policy and the payroll setup all say the same thing.

There is no national statutory minimum wage in Switzerland, which means the floor for your role comes from the canton and the applicable collective or standard employment agreement instead. Geneva's ordinary minimum is CHF 24.59 gross per hour from 1 January 2026, subject to its scope and exceptions, and it is a cantonal rate rather than a Swiss national one. Use the rate for the actual workplace and role.

Set salary, payment dates and promised benefits

For a benchmark rather than a floor, the Federal Statistical Office reports a gross monthly median wage of CHF 7,024 for a full-time position across the Swiss private and public sectors in 2024, in a release published on 25 November 2025. That is a national median, not a mean, not a 2026 pay rate and not a role-specific offer. Compare the candidate's occupation, experience, location and applicable salary floor before you turn it into a number.

Salary is payable at the end of each month unless a shorter period or other payment terms have been agreed, are customary or follow the applicable standard or collective employment contract, and the employer must provide a written pay statement. Agree the payroll cut-off, payment date, deductions and expense process with the EOR rather than discovering them on the first run.

A thirteenth salary is not a universal Swiss statutory entitlement, whatever a comparison table may suggest. Check the contract and the collective agreement, and keep the distinction clear between an agreed salary instalment and a discretionary bonus: the Code of Obligations governs when a special payment is owed under an agreement and when a proportional payment is due at termination. State the annual gross salary and the number of payments explicitly.

Working hours, overtime and rest

The legal ceilings below are not a standard working week, and the contracted week can be shorter than any of them.

The Labour Act's ordinary weekly maximum is 45 hours for industrial, office, technical and specified other staff, including sales staff in large retail businesses, and 50 hours for other covered workers. Scope exclusions and special schedules matter, so read these as legal ceilings rather than as a universal 45-hour employment contract.

Two different regimes govern extra hours, and confusing them is the common error. Work beyond agreed hours falls under the Code of Obligations, where salary plus at least 25% is the default unless valid written or collective terms vary it, and equivalent time off needs agreement. Work beyond the Labour Act maximum is stricter, normally capped at 170 hours a year for the 45-hour category or 140 for the 50-hour category, with a first-60-hours exception to the mandatory premium for specified office, technical and retail staff. Check the rest and compensation rules before approving extra work.

For covered adult workers, minimum breaks are 15 minutes after more than 5.5 hours of work, 30 minutes after more than seven and one hour after more than nine, and a break counts as work if the employee cannot leave the workstation. Daily rest is normally 11 consecutive hours, with a limited reduction to eight hours possible once a week if the two-week average remains 11. Weekly rest normally combines the rest day with daily rest for at least 35 consecutive hours.

Night work normally falls between 23:00 and 06:00, subject to permitted scheduling adjustments, and night and Sunday work generally require an exception or authorisation. Temporary night work ordinarily attracts at least 25% additional pay, regular night work generally brings a 10% time-off supplement, and temporary Sunday work attracts 50% additional pay plus the applicable rest. There is no universal Saturday premium and no single 50% rate covering every kind of night or weekend work.

Employers must retain the working-time records required by the Labour Act for at least five years. Simplified recording and exemptions have specific conditions, so a salaried office role does not automatically remove the duty. Tell the EOR who records hours, breaks and leave and who approves extra work. SECO says work schedules should normally be communicated about two weeks in advance, with employee participation.

Four weeks of paid annual leave per year of service is the statutory floor, five weeks while the employee is under age 20, and contracts and collective agreements can provide more. Part-time employees keep the equivalent number of leave weeks, with the number of days depending on their working pattern, and entitlement is proportional for an incomplete year. The parts that go wrong are timing and holiday pay, not the headline number.

Annual leave and public holidays

Annual leave carries the corresponding full salary and generally cannot be replaced with a cash payment during employment. For irregular part-time work, narrowly defined arrangements can include separately identified holiday pay in hourly payments, and the contract and each payslip must show it properly. Never assume an hourly rate already includes the holiday entitlement.

The employer sets leave dates while considering the employee's wishes and business needs, and at least two weeks should be consecutive. Statutory leave does not automatically disappear on 31 December: SECO describes a five-year limitation period. Illness that prevents the purpose of a holiday can affect whether the days count as leave, so check reductions, carryover and the employment-end balance against the actual facts.

Public holidays work differently from most of Europe. 1 August is the national public holiday, and cantons can designate up to eight other holidays as equivalent to Sundays, with calendars that differ between them. A holiday falling on an ordinary day off does not automatically create a replacement day. Monthly salaries are generally not reduced for a holiday, while for hourly workers, pay for holidays other than 1 August depends on the applicable agreement or terms. Confirm the actual canton's calendar and pay rules.

Family leave and benefits

Most of the family benefits below are funded through income compensation rather than by you directly, but the leave entitlement and the benefit eligibility are separate questions and both need checking for the individual.

Statutory maternity leave normally lasts 14 weeks from childbirth, with the income-compensation benefit generally at 80% of prior income capped at CHF 220 a day in 2026, subject to insurance and work-history conditions. The standard qualifying periods are nine months insured and five months working before birth, with adjustments in specified cases, and newborn hospitalisation or a parent's death can create additional rights.

The qualifying other parent has two weeks of leave, equivalent to ten working days on a five-day week, to use within six months of birth, with the benefit generally replacing 80% of prior income capped at CHF 220 per day in 2026. Death of the mother can trigger a separate extended entitlement. Check legal parenthood and eligibility rather than treating this as a universal two-day allowance.

For a qualifying placement of a child under four for adoption, eligible parents can receive two weeks of leave within one year of placement. They may divide the leave but cannot take it simultaneously, and the allowance normally replaces 80% of qualifying income up to CHF 220 a day in 2026, subject to insurance and work-history conditions. Stepchild adoption does not qualify for this benefit.

Eligible working parents caring for a child seriously affected by illness or accident can share up to 14 weeks of care leave within an 18-month framework, with the benefit generally replacing 80% of qualifying income capped at CHF 220 a day in 2026. It carries specific medical and eligibility conditions and is a different thing from ordinary short absences to care for a sick child.

Paid leave to care for a family member or partner affected by illness or accident is generally limited to the necessary time, up to three days per event and ten days per year. Caring for children can involve additional rights under the Labour Act and salary-continuation rules, so that ten-day ceiling is not a complete limit on all child-care absences. Time off for marriage, bereavement or moving depends on the circumstances, custom and applicable terms, and there is no universal five-day paid marriage leave.

Under the general family-allowance framework the 2026 minimum is CHF 215 per child per month and CHF 268 for a qualifying child in education, and cantons can provide higher amounts. Eligibility, age limits and priority between parents affect payment, and agricultural rules differ. Keep the employee's allowance entitlement separate from the employer's family-fund contribution rate, because they are different lines.

For workers covered by the Labour Act, pregnancy and breastfeeding require health-protection measures and consent to employment. Work is prohibited for eight weeks after birth, and from then until week 16 it requires the mother's consent. Work between 20:00 and 06:00 is prohibited during the eight weeks before birth, and suitable daytime work with statutory pay protection may be required where night work cannot continue. These safeguards sit alongside the 14-week maternity benefit rather than inside it.

Sickness and medical evidence

Swiss sick pay is not the 30-day entitlement or the 80/20 insurer split that comparison tables often show. Without an equivalent contractual insurance arrangement, an employee unable to work through no fault of their own can receive full salary where the employment has lasted more than three months or was agreed for more than three months. The statutory minimum is three weeks in the first year of service, then an appropriately longer period under the applicable cantonal case-law scale.

An equivalent written sickness-income insurance arrangement can replace the ordinary salary-continuation rules, and SECO describes arrangements commonly covering 80% of salary for 720 or 730 days within 900 days, with the employer paying at least half the premiums. Check equivalence, waiting days, eligibility, exclusions and what happens when employment ends. This insurance is a different product from personal health-care insurance.

An employer can request a medical certificate from the first day of incapacity, although contracts often set a later deadline. The certificate should establish incapacity and its extent without disclosing the diagnosis, and where a medical review by the employer's or insurer's doctor is justified, that party bears the cost. Set a clear employee reporting process and limit who can access health information.