Brief Review

Hours Worked

Working hours vary, depending on your employer, your job and the industry you work in. They are usually stated in your employment contract. The Federal Statistical Office reported that the Swiss worker worked an average of 41,7 hours a week in 2006. Swiss employees work an average of 1,856 hours a year, the highest in Europe; the comparable figures for Germany and the UK are 1,683 and 1,785 hours, respectively. Swiss law sets the maximum number of working hours to 45 per week for industrial workers, office personnel, technical personnel and other employees, including sales personnel in large-scale retail. For all other workers, the limit is set at 50 hours.

Whatever industry you work in, you might have to adjust to longer working hours in Switzerland than you are used to at home. The Swiss believe in long working hours, perhaps in order to justify their high wages, and have voted against reducing the length of the workweek on many occasions.

Overtime is counted as the hours that exceed the agreed number of working hours in your contract, which still remain below the maximum weekly amount of work determined by the Labour Act. It is normally paid at 125 percent of the normal rate or in lieu of that, compensated in the form of time off. If you have a managerial position, you probably won’t get paid extra or receive extra days off.