Minimum Wage: Swiss Cantons Push On Despite National Setback

(MENAFN- Swissinfo) On Tuesday campaigners in Lausanne handed in 32,000 signatures for two separate but mutually dependent initiatives: one to anchor the principle of a minimum wage in the cantonal constitution, and one dealing with a law to implement it.

The initiators – trade unions and left-wing parties – said the idea was“timely”, as inflation, healthcare costs and rent prices squeeze low-earners. They want authorities to process the initiatives quickly and bring them to ballot.

A decade after Swiss voters roundly rejected a national minimum wage of CHF22 – which would have been comfortably the world's highest – Vaud is the latest example of how the issue has shifted to the cantonal and local level.

In recent years five of the 26 Swiss cantons have voted in favour of a minimum wage: Neuchâtel in 2017 (CHF20.77), Jura in 2018 (CHF20.60), Geneva in 2020 (CHF23), Ticino in 2021 (CHF19) and Basel City this year (CHF21); some of the rates have since been adjusted upwards due to inflation. Initiatives are also underway in several other cantons, while in June Zurich and Winterthur became the first cities to follow suit with a minimum rate of CHF23.90 and CHF23 respectively.

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This content was published on Jun 18, 2023 Jun 18, 2023 Voters in Switzerland's biggest city have approved a minimum wage which left-wing groups say will help the working poor.

However, the flurry of local activity is facing legal and political resistance. The Zurich and Winterthur laws, for example, are currently blocked by legal appeals filed by employers' groups. If every municipality were to bring in its own minimum wage, it would lead to absurd situations, Zurich employers' spokeswoman Nicole Barandun told Swiss public radio, SRF,External link last month. Her group wants clarification on the legality of the text.

Whether it is successful or not remains to be seen. In 2017, the federal court ruled that minimum wages at the cantonal level were constitutional. But such action at the municipal level is new. In the meantime, Zurich and Winterthur authorities are moving ahead with preparations to introduce the legislation, SRF writes.

Another challenge is brewing in Bern, where last December parliament voted in favour of a motion to give precedence to collective bargaining agreements over cantonal or local minimum wages.

The text by Centre Party politician Erich Ettlin proposes that in sectors where a national collective wage agreement has been negotiated, this would apply regardless of a cantonal minimum rate – even if the negotiated wages were lower. While this stipulation is already built into the laws of three cantons, it would have an impact on the minimum wages in Neuchâtel and Geneva – in the latter, the UNIA trade union estimatesExternal link it would result in a CHF1,000 monthly drop in income for hairdressers, for example.

This idea is currently with the Swiss government, which will draft a law and send it back to parliament. Left-wing groups say they will keep fighting it, including by gathering signatures for another national referendum.

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This content was published on May 2, 2023 May 2, 2023 In 2021, 5% of the Swiss population had to go without certain“important goods, services and social activities” due to lack of money.

Internationally, the debates might seem like minor details in a country where salaries are in any case high (see box).

Domestically, however, the debates are also symbolic of how political parties operate in the highly federal Swiss political system, by focusing efforts more at the national or local level depending on the issue.

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