Salary recommendations
Fair wage
In principle, the wage must be negotiated by the parties. It is not possible to make a general wage recommendation for a babysitter, nanny or childminder, as the tasks in terms of joint educational responsibility as well as the frequency and location of the child-care work and any domestic duties can vary greatly. These forms of care must also be classified differently from a legal perspective:
- For young babysitters who sporadically supervise children at their place of residence and do not have any domestic duties, there is no binding wage. Our hourly wage calculator can provide you with a rough recommendation.
- Older babysitters are subject to the Federal Council's standard employment contract (SEC) for domestic employees with a workload of at least five hours a week (on average). The obligatory minimum wage then applies.
- Nannies are employed within a private household, take on educational and pedagogical responsibility for the children and often help within the household. They thus fall under the scope of the Federal Council's standard employment contract (SEC) for domestic workers. If they on average work five hours or more per week, the obligatory minimum wage will apply to nannies.
- Childminders who look after children outside the family are self-employed. They are not employed by the family and instead work independently. They thus also determine themselves how high the remuneration for their service should be.
Minimum wage
If the weekly workload is 5 hours or more, the legal minimum wage applies. This is the gross wage excluding additional payments for holidays. It is is divided into various categories. Social insurance contributions still have to be deducted from this, which is why the amount actually paid out is lower. Experience shows that as an average for Switzerland as a whole the agreed wages are around 20% above the minimum wage.
| Qualification | Minimum wage in Swiss francs per hour |
| Unskilled and without professional experience | CHF 19.20 |
| Unskilled household helper with at least four years of professional experience as a domestic worker / child carer | CHF 21.10 |
| Skilled child carer with a Swiss Federal Certificate of Competence as an expert in home economics or with completed basic vocational training of at least three years which is suitable for the domestic work to be performed. | CHF 23.20 |
| Skilled householder helper with a Swiss Federal Vocational Certificate as a home economics practitioner or with completed basic vocational training of at least two years which is suitable for the domestic work to be performed. | CHF 21.10 |
Type of settlement
The parties need to decide how they wish to measure the wage. The agreement of an hourly wage is appropriate if the number of times the employee is called on and the length of time they work will vary. A monthly wage, on the other hand, is beneficial in the case of regular and long-term employment relationships in which the household helper takes a fixed number of weeks of holiday each year.
It must also be decided whether the agreed wage represents a gross wage or a net wage. The gross wage refers to the wage before the deduction of tax and social security contributions. The gross wage makes it easier for the employer to better estimate the total costs of the appointment, as only a few additional charges on the employer side are added to the bottom line. The net wage refers to the wage after all deductions have been paid. The net wage is the amount that the householder helper receives in his/her hand, i.e. the actually disposable income. The agreement of a net wage makes it easier for you to pay a round figure.
Have you agreed on the wage amount and conditions? Our employment assistant Fairboss provides you with free support in generating an employment contract and correctly registering the appointment.
