A recent survey by the Federal Statistical Office shows the overall median pay gap in Switzerland’s private sector shrunk to 12% in 2016, down from 12.5% in 2014 and 15.6% in 2010. In 2016, median pay for women was CHF 6,011 francs a month and median pay for men was CHF 6,830. The gap rose […]
Nearly half of Swiss admit to stealing
Either at work, at a restaurant, on public transport or in a shop, nearly half of Swiss admit to stealing, according to a survey by moneyland.ch 49% of the 1,500 questioned in the survey admitted to pocketing something without paying. Young people admitted to being the most light fingered. Around a fifth of those aged […]
Switzerland scores well on youth job market conditions but suffers from skills mismatch
A recent report places Switzerland second in a ranking of 33 european countries on conditions in the youth labour market in 2016 – youth are those between 15 and 24. Switzerland’s overall score of 5.67 out of 7.00 is close to Denmark’s 5.72. Switzerland’s highest scores are for employment rate (6.01) and working conditions (5.77), […]
Swiss organic farm output doubles
Between 1999 and 2017 the amount of organic food produced on Swiss farms more than doubled. In 1999, 5.3% of Switzerland’s farm output was organic. By 2017 this figure had risen to 11.7%. In 1999, Swiss farms produced CHF 562 million worth of organic food. In 2017, they produced CHF 1.2 billion. Consumers are spending […]
Internal EU letter says grant no concessions to Switzerland
An internal EU commission letter says that without a framework agreement Swiss-EU agreements granting access to the EU single market will only be changed if it is in the EU’s interest, according to the newspaper Neue Zürcher Zeitung (NZZ) and the Keystone-SDA news agency. The letter dated 10 January 2019 and signed by Martin Selmayr, […]
Swiss unemployment lowest in 10 years
Switzerland’s unemployment rate, now 2.6%, hasn’t been so low for 10 years, according to the latest figures from Switzerland’s State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO). A weakening of the Swiss franc helped boost Switzerland’s economic growth, creating more jobs. The unemployment rate among young workers (15-24) dropped 0.7% to 2.4% as did unemployment among the […]
Swiss Big Mac prices suggest Swiss franc still overvalued
On 10 January 2019, the Economist came out with its latest Big Mac index, which compares the price of a Big Mac around the world. The index uses the burger to compare the relative purchasing power of different currencies. Countries where Big Macs cost less than in the United States (in US$ terms) are deemed to […]
Running a Swiss business – changes in 2019
Nearly every year brings administrative changes for business owners and managers. The five most likely to be felt by Swiss SMEs this year are set out below. 1. Social insurance taxes The three main ones (AVS, AI, APG) remain the same in 2019. Together they come to 10.25% of salary, of which half is deducted […]
Lenders pay to lend money to Switzerland
On 28 December 2018, Italy issued government bonds maturing in 2028 at an effective interest rate of 2.7%1. Interest rates like this combined with the scale of Italian public debt (157% of GDP) mean Italian taxpayers spend more on public debt interest than they do on education. In 2015, Italy spent 4.1% of GDP on […]
Nestlé now Europe’s most valuable company
Volatile markets have been reshuffling the ranking of the world’s most valuable companies. Over the course of the last six months, Nestlé overtook Royal Dutch Shell to become Europe’s most valuable company. At the end of June 2018, Royal Dutch Shell had Europe’s highest market capitalisation (US$ 293 billion), making it the world’s 13th most […]
