Switzerland Statutory social-insurance contributions

What this value means

What a payroll engine gets wrong in Switzerland, in order of how much money it costs: 1. THE SECOND PILLAR IS MANDATORY, IS THE LARGEST CONTRIBUTION OF ALL, AND IS NOT A PERCENTAGE OF SALARY. BVG contributions are a percentage of the KOORDINIERTER LOHN — AHV pay less a Koordinationsabzug of CHF 26'460, capped at an obere Grenzbetrag of CHF 90'720, floored at CHF 3'780, and payable only once pay exceeds an Eintrittsschwelle of CHF 22'680. The percentage is then AGE-BANDED: 7 % from 25 to 34, 10 % from 35 to 44, 15 % from 45 to 54 and 18 % from 55 to reference age. Because the base is a deduction-and-cap construct, the same 18 % is 12,74 % of gross at CHF 90'720 and 8,47 % of gross at CHF 50'000. Any model that applies a single BVG percentage to gross salary is wrong for every employee. 2. THE BVG EMPLOYER SHARE IS A FLOOR, NOT A RATIO. Art. 66 Abs. 1 requires only that the employer's total contribution be at least equal to the total of its employees'. 50/50 is the statutory minimum employer share; many employers pay 60 % or more, and pension institutions are typically 'umhüllend' and provide well above the BVG minimum. The statutory figures are the bottom of the range, not the market. 3. TWO OF THE FOUR MOST IMPORTANT BRANCHES HAVE NO STATUTORY RATE AT ALL. The UVG occupational-accident premium is employer-borne and risk-rated by Suva or a private insurer; the UVG non-occupational premium is employee-borne by default and equally risk-rated, and it commonly runs between 1 % and 2 % of insured earnings. Neither appears in any published rate table, and the non-occupational premium is a real payslip deduction that an AHV-only calculation misses entirely. 4. THE ALV SOLIDARITY CONTRIBUTION ABOVE THE CEILING WAS ABOLISHED ON 1 JANUARY 2023. Until then a further 1 % (0,5 % each side) was charged on earnings above CHF 148'200. Above the ceiling the correct ALV charge is now exactly nil. Code still charging it overstates both sides on high earners. 5. THE CHF 148'200 CEILING HAS NOT MOVED SINCE 2016 AND IS NOT INDEXED. It is set by Federal Council ordinance as the UVG maximum insured earnings, and the ALV ceiling follows it. Do not uprate it by inflation each January; it changes only when the ordinance is revised. 6. AHV, IV AND EO ARE UNCAPPED AND THE BENEFIT IS NOT. The maximum AHV pension is reached at a modest average income; above that the 8,7 % buys nothing and is a tax in substance. So the Swiss combined rate is 12,80 % (6,40 % each side) up to CHF 148'200 and 10,60 % (5,30 % each side) above it — two different totals depending on where in the salary range you are. 7. THE RETIREMENT-AGE FREIBETRAG IS PER EMPLOYER AND CAN BE WAIVED. An employee past reference age pays AHV/IV/EO only on pay above CHF 1'400 a month or CHF 16'800 a year, and each employer applies the allowance separately, so a pensioner with two jobs receives it twice. Since 2024 the employee may elect to waive it in order to improve their pension. Contribution liability at the other end of life begins on 1 January following the 17th birthday. 8. FAMILY ALLOWANCE FINANCING IS CANTONAL AND KASSE-SPECIFIC. There is no Swiss FAK rate. Published 2026 rates run from well under 1 % to about 1,8 % of the wage bill depending on canton and on which Familienausgleichskasse the employer belongs to, and several cantons cut their rates for 2026. Valais is the only canton where employees also contribute. The determining factor is where the EMPLOYER is established. 9. THE NON-OCCUPATIONAL ACCIDENT 8-HOUR RULE IS A CLIFF. An employee working fewer than 8 hours a week for the employer has no non-occupational accident cover, and their commute is treated as an occupational accident instead. The premium disappears with the cover. 10. HEALTH INSURANCE IS NOT A PAYROLL CONTRIBUTION IN SWITZERLAND. Compulsory health insurance under the KVG is bought individually by each resident from a private insurer at a per-head premium unrelated to earnings, is not deducted from pay and is not an employer cost. Any comparison of Swiss and neighbouring payroll burdens that omits it will materially understate what a Swiss household actually pays for social protection, but it does not belong in a payroll record and is not served as a branch. 11. DAILY SICKNESS BENEFIT INSURANCE (KTG) IS NOT STATUTORY. Most Swiss employers carry Krankentaggeldversicherung, commonly split 50/50 with the employee, because the Code of Obligations otherwise imposes a limited employer wage-continuation duty. It is contractual or collectively agreed, not a statutory branch, and is not priced here. 12. DEDUCTIBILITY. Employee AHV/IV/EO, ALV, BVG and non-occupational accident contributions are deductible from taxable income for federal and cantonal income tax. Employer-borne branches are business expenses. 13. TOTALS FOR AN ORDINARY EMPLOYEE. Up to CHF 148'200: employee 6,40 % (AHV/IV/EO 5,30 % + ALV 1,10 %) plus non-occupational accident premium plus the employee's share of BVG; employer 6,40 % plus occupational accident premium plus at least half of BVG plus the cantonal FAK contribution. Above CHF 148'200 the first-pillar figure falls to 5,30 % on each side. SUB-NATIONAL VARIATION: real, and confined to one branch. Family allowance contributions are fixed by cantonal law and by each Familienausgleichskasse, ranging from well under 1 % to around 1,8 % for 2026, and Valais uniquely also charges employees. Everything else — AHV, IV, EO, ALV, UVG and BVG — is federal and uniform across all 26 cantons. Cantonal and communal INCOME TAX rates differ enormously between cantons but are not social contributions. The determining factor for FAK is the canton of the employer's establishment, not the employee's residence. WHAT WE DO NOT PUT A NUMBER ON: 1. BVG — all three rate fields null. Three independent reasons, each sufficient: the rate is age-banded across four bands; the base is the koordinierter Lohn rather than gross pay, so no single percentage of salary exists; and the statute fixes only a minimum employer share rather than a split. The complete age table, all four 2026 threshold amounts and the Art. 66 split rule are served in the branch instead, so nothing is withheld except a figure that does not exist. 2. UVG occupational accident premiums — null. Employer-borne by statute, risk-rated by Suva or a private insurer, with no statutory tariff. 3. UVG non-occupational accident premiums — null. Employee-borne by default, equally risk-rated. The commonly observed 1 %–2 % range is given as an observation, expressly not as a rate. 4. Family allowance (FAK) contributions — null. Cantonal and Kasse-specific; the observed 2026 span and named examples are given in the branch notes. 5. Krankentaggeldversicherung (daily sickness benefit insurance) — not served as a branch. It is contractual or collectively agreed, not statutory, though it is near-universal and commonly split evenly. 6. Compulsory health insurance premiums under the KVG — not served. They are individual per-head premiums bought outside payroll and are neither an employer cost nor a wage deduction. 7. Administrative cost surcharges (Verwaltungskostenbeiträge) levied by Ausgleichskassen on top of AHV/IV/EO contributions — not priced. They are set by each Kasse within a statutory maximum and are small but real employer costs. 8. Überobligatorische BVG cover above CHF 90'720 — not priced. It is very common but voluntary, and the terms are set by the pension institution. ALREADY LEGISLATED, NOT YET IN FORCE: 1. VAT RISES BY 0,4 PERCENTAGE POINTS FROM 2028 TO FUND THE 13TH AHV PENSION — the standard rate from 8,1 % to 8,5 % and the accommodation rate from 3,8 % to 4,0 %, resolved in the final votes of 19 June 2026. CRITICALLY FOR THIS RECORD, PAYROLL CONTRIBUTIONS ARE NOT INCREASED: the 13th pension is paid in 2026 and 2027 with no additional financing, and the AHV rate remains 8,7 %. Proposals to fund it partly through Lohnprozente were not adopted. RE-VERIFY BEFORE 2028 in case the financing mix is revisited. 2. THE BVG THRESHOLDS MOVE WITH AHV PENSION ADJUSTMENTS, WHICH ARE NORMALLY BIENNIAL, NOT ANNUAL. The 2026 figures are unchanged from 2025; the next adjustment is expected with the AHV pension adjustment on 1 January 2027. RE-VERIFY FROM 2026-11-01. 3. THE CHF 148'200 MAXIMUM INSURED EARNINGS is revised only by Federal Council ordinance and has stood since 2016. There is no scheduled change, but it drives both the UVG and ALV ceilings, so a revision would move two branches at once. RE-VERIFY FROM 2026-11-01 with the rest of the annual set. 4. CANTONAL FAK RATES ARE RE-FIXED ANNUALLY, typically in the autumn for the following year; several cantons moved for 2026. RE-VERIFY FROM 2026-11-01. No change to the AHV, IV, EO or ALV percentages is on the statute book for 2027. SOURCING CAVEATS: SECONDARY — see confidence_note. VERIFIED BY FETCHING — a published 2026 Swiss social insurance contribution table giving AHV 8,7 %, IV 1,4 %, EO 0,50 %, Arbeitnehmerbeitrag 5,3 % and Arbeitgeberbeitrag 5,3 %, ALV 1,1 % on each side of the AHV annual salary up to CHF 148'200, a combined AHV/IV/EO/ALV total of 12,80 %, the Rentner-Freibetrag of CHF 1'400 a month and CHF 16'800 a year, the BVG Eintrittsschwelle of CHF 22'680, Koordinationsabzug of CHF 26'460 and obere Grenze of CHF 90'720, the UVG maximum insured earnings of CHF 148'200, and the statement that UVG rates vary by industry. The 2026 cantonal FAK position (St. Gallen 1,8 %; reductions in Bern, Basel-Landschaft and Zürich) and the 2026 benefit ranges (child allowance CHF 215–330, education allowance CHF 268–477) were confirmed from published cantonal and federal material. The financing of the 13th AHV pension — final votes of 19 June 2026, VAT up 0,4 points from 2028 from 8,1 % to 8,5 % and the accommodation rate from 3,8 % to 4,0 %, with the 2026 and 2027 payments made without additional financing — was confirmed from reporting of the parliamentary decision. COULD NOT READ: ahv-iv.ch returned HTTP 403 on every attempt; the Bundesamt für Sozialversicherungen's overview page confirms the existence of its "Beträge gültig ab 1. Januar 2026" but serves the figures only in a downloadable PDF that could not be retrieved; and Fedlex, the federal law portal, requires JavaScript and returned only its language-selection notice, so the consolidated texts of AHVG, IVG, EOG, AVIG, UVG and BVG were not opened either. Every rate served is nonetheless corroborated across published 2026 tables that agree with one another and with the statutory rates, which have not changed since 2021. INFERRED, NOT READ AS A STATED FIGURE: the maximum koordinierter Lohn of CHF 64'260 (CHF 90'720 less CHF 26'460) and the minimum of CHF 3'780; the 12,74 % and 8,47 % worked examples of BVG burden as a percentage of gross; the CHF 12'350 monthly equivalent of the CHF 148'200 ceiling; the 10,60 % combined rate above the ceiling. The BVG Altersgutschriften of 7 / 10 / 15 / 18 % and the age bands are the long-standing statutory minima in the BVG Anhang and were not re-read from the Act in this pass. The statutory article references are as commonly cited. The observation that non-occupational accident premiums commonly run between 1 % and 2 % is a market observation, not a rate. Reported branches are those applying to an ordinary private-sector employee. Not covered: the self-employed, non-employed persons paying AHV on wealth and pension income, employees below the AHV age threshold, apprentices, employees of employers not established in Switzerland, cross-border commuters whose applicable law is determined by the EU–Swiss Agreement on the Free Movement of Persons and Regulation (EC) No 883/2004, and the special arrangements in the canton of Valais where employees contribute to family allowances. Employee and employer shares are stated separately: the employee figure is what leaves the payslip, the employer figure is cost of employment and is not a deduction.

Get it programmatically

curl https://euroref.dev/v1/ch/social-contributions
# $0.005 per call — x402 on Base (USDC). No key, no signup.
# History:    curl https://euroref.dev/v1/ch/social-contributions/history?from=2020-01-01
# Provenance: curl https://euroref.dev/provenance/ch/social-contributions

Other Switzerland series: SNB policy rate (SNB-Leitzins) · Statutory default interest (Verzugszins) · MWST/TVA standard rate (Normalsatz) · VAT registration threshold · National statutory minimum wage · Public holidays · CPI inflation (year-on-year) · Corporate income tax rate (federal, direkte Bundessteuer) · Withholding tax rates · Personal income tax brackets (federal, direkte Bundessteuer)

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