Swiss Compliance
What Swiss Law Requires of an Employer
The obligations a Swiss employer actually carries, and what HRMZY does about each. Every statutory figure links to its federal source.
Compliance Assistant covers Switzerland
HRMZY’s Compliance Assistant reads statute text you give it and drafts baseline configuration for review — an administrator accepts or rejects each proposal. Switzerland is one of the 59 countries it supports.
Working-time records, kept five years
Employers must record actual daily and weekly hours — including overtime and where it fell in the day — plus breaks of half an hour or more and weekly rest days, and keep the records for five years. HRMZY timestamps clock-ins, stores the daily position of hours worked, and retains the audit trail. Fedlex — ArGV 1, Art. 73
The 45 / 50-hour split
The statutory maximum week is 45 hours for office, industrial, technical and large-retail sales staff, and 50 hours for everyone else — not one national figure. HRMZY records which ceiling applies to each employee group and reports hours against it. Fedlex — ArG, Art. 9
AHV / IV / EO at 10.6%
Old-age, disability and loss-of-earnings contributions total 10.6% of salary, split evenly at 5.3% employee and 5.3% employer. HRMZY’s payroll engine is configured with the employee and employer rates that apply and carries both halves per employee, so the Ausgleichskasse schedule comes from one record. AHV/IV Merkblatt 2.01
ALV and the CHF 148,200 ceiling
Unemployment insurance is 2.2% of AHV-liable salary, half employer and half employee, and is charged only up to CHF 148,200 a year. Salary above the ceiling carries no ALV. HRMZY’s payroll engine takes the ceiling as a configured limit rather than running the deduction on full pay. AHV/IV Merkblatt 2.08
BVG entry threshold
Occupational pension cover begins above an annual salary of CHF 22,680 with one employer. HRMZY holds annual salary per employee, so the Eintrittsschwelle can be reported on when hours or pay change mid-year. Fedlex — BVG, Art. 2 and 7
Four weeks’ holiday, five under 20
Every employee is entitled to at least four weeks of paid holiday per year of service, and five weeks while under 20. HRMZY accrues entitlement, pro-rates part-year starters and tracks carryover. Fedlex — Code of Obligations, Art. 329a
One federal public holiday
Only 1 August is federal. Cantons may equate up to eight more with Sundays — and may set them differently in different parts of the same canton. A single national holiday calendar is wrong by construction, so HRMZY holds them per location. Fedlex — ArG, Art. 20a
No national minimum wage
Switzerland sets no minimum wage federally. Some cantons have introduced one for their own territory, and GAV and NAV agreements set sector minimums. HRMZY records the rate that applies to each contract rather than assuming a national floor. ch.ch — federal portal
Withholding tax (Quellensteuer)
Employees without a C settlement permit are taxed at source on employment income. HRMZY records permit status per employee, so Quellensteuer-liable staff can be separated from those filing ordinarily. Fedlex — DBG, Art. 83
14 weeks maternity, 2 weeks for the other parent
Maternity leave runs at least 14 weeks after the birth, and the other parent has two weeks to take within six months, as whole weeks or single days. HRMZY tracks both against the statutory windows. Fedlex — Code of Obligations, Art. 329f
13th month is contractual, not statutory
A 13th month salary is not required by Swiss law — it is customary, and binding only where the contract or a GAV provides for it. HRMZY holds it as a contractual pay component rather than as a statutory entitlement. kmu.admin.ch (SECO)