le News

In January 2015, when the Swiss National Bank stopped its attempt to keep the Swiss franc to Euro exchange rate at 1.20, the Swiss currency quickly rose beyond parity. © Valeriya Potapova | Dreamstime.com To soften the economic shock, Switzerland’s government allowed working hours to be extended with no extra pay and working hours and pay to be cut. Employees were offered partial unemployment benefits to compensate for pay cuts. The logic behind the scheme was that extra unpaid hours or...

A survey of the cost of living in 77 cities, by UBS, ranks Zurich (1st) and Geneva (2nd) as the most expensive. But while these cities are the most expensive, their workers are also the highest paid. © Astra490 | Dreamstime.com In Zurich, less than five days pay affords an iPhone X. In Geneva, the same device requires less than six days of labour. Los Angeles (6.3 days) and Miami (6.5 days) complete the top four. At the other end of the ranking, a worker in Cairo would need nearly 27 weeks...

Recent statistics show that the average full-time employee in Switzerland worked 42.6 hours a week. © Makasanaphoto | Dreamstime.com This is slightly less than an average Icelander (42.9) – the longest working – but 13% longer than the average in leisurely France (37.4), the european nation putting in the fewest hours. Switzerland also came second on a broader measure: average hours worked per week by everyone 15 or over – see chart below. This includes those not working and provides an...

While Switzerland remains in the top five with the same other four countries in this year’s IMD World Competitiveness Ranking, it slipped from second to fifth place. © Kevkhiev Yury | Dreamstime.com The United States rose from fourth to first, second and third places went to Hong Kong and Singapore, and fourth place to the Netherlands. America’s comeback was due to its economic performance and infrastructure said IMD. Switzerland’s slide was down to an export slowdown and the risk of losing...

This week, the Swiss NGO Public Eye, launched a campaign for more affordable medicine in Switzerland under the slogan: protect patients, not patents. © Penchan Pumila | Dreamstime.com The NGO says high prices, of cancer drugs in particular, is not only an issue affecting developing nations but wealthy ones too. It says that cancer treatments in Switzerland often cost over CHF 100,000 a year. Public Eye’s proposed cure is compulsory licensing, an international patent law mechanism that allows...

Sometimes Swiss voters are presented with questions that only specialists are equipped to answer. The vote on 10 June 2018 to change their monetary system appears to be one of these. © Valeriya Potapova | Dreamstime.com On the surface it appears simple. Upon closer inspection it contains much complexity and uncertainty, compounded by a widespread misunderstanding of how the financial system works – banks do not act simply as intermediaries, lending out the deposits that savers place with...

Switzerland’s government is working hard to find ways to fix a looming state pension shortfall. © Sang Lei | Dreamstime.com Two politicians in the canton of Fribourg have decided to seek savings by attempting to cut lifetime government pensions granted after short stints in the job, according to the newspaper 20 Minutes. In some Swiss cantons, government leaders can work for several years and leave with pensions for life, a perk that Nicolas Kolly (UDC/SVP) and Romain Collaud (PLR/FDP) think...

Swiss Rail has dropped plans to install Wi-Fi in its trains, according to the newspaper Le Matin. © Katie Nesling | Dreamstime.com After a survey revealed that customers would only use on-board Wi-Fi it was free, the company decided there was no justifiable way to cover the cost, according the the newspaper. Swiss Rail is not prepared to bear the costs the mobile operators would charge them for the service and cannot not justify adding the cost to ticket prices. Someone has to pay and that...

By January 2018, the number receiving disability welfare in Switzerland had dropped to 217,200, 40,300 fewer than in 2006 when the number reached a record 257,500. © Andrea De Martin | Dreamstime.com Switzerland’s Federal Social Insurance Office (FSIO) attributes the reduction to an occupational rehabilitation programme started in 2008, and disability welfare fraud investigations. In 2017, 40,800 disability beneficiaries were eligible for the occupational rehabilitation programme, designed to...

Swiss salaries have risen according to a recently published report by Switzerland’s Federal Statistical Office. © Disqdr | Dreamstime.com The median gross monthly salary was CHF 6,5021 in 2016, CHF 313 higher than in 2014. 50% of Swiss workers earned more than this and 50% earned less. CHF 6,502 a month is an annual salary of CHF 78,024 (US$ 78,200). The extra CHF 313 is a 5% increase over two years. In real terms, after adjusting for inflation, it represents a rise of close to 7% – over 2015...