In house legal salaries

Visas, Permits, Passports and Naturalization
41
Just means a lot of us need to dream bigger . When I am dreaming I am not earning a paltry chf500k and working for a MNC. I am more like Hector Riva from the lottery adds .

42
The OP should be aware that revealing his salary is against the law in CH. The company could sack him without notice & have no compensation to pay ,!or salary for the notice period.

43
I suggest to the mods that we move this topic to the "monday depression" thread...

44
Depending on how the employer calculates the package a close look at his numbers may result in the following:

360k USD are about 326k CHF at today's rate. This might (or may not, we just don't know) include the following

8'000 CHF (annual taxable benefit for a company car with a price tag of 100'000 CHF)

45'000 CHF (employer's pension plan contributions at 20% of the assumed gross salary of approx. 225'000, depending on the company's pension plan, the age of the OP etc.)

50'000 CHF in stock options/RSUs which may or may not be worth something in the future.

Throw in a couple of tickets to visit family back home in the US and the actual salary might become lower.

Thus the 326k CHF in total compensation may equal a base salary of 'just' 223k CHF. Still a very decent salary with a chance to cash in on RSUs and a very decent company car, too.

And yes, a lot of people in Switzerland live on a fraction thereof. However, the GINI-index is way higher in the US than it is in Switzerland. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...ncome_equality

45
House with lake, Maserati, staff, a mountain for the weekends, half of Italy, free negotiation of own tax rates, ........

46
I think we've established before that that isn't even close to being true.

You can't tell your wife, your bank, your car dealer, your mate down the pub what you earn???

47
he saw it on Top Gear

48
If I were clever enough to make money in that region I would certainly not look for an answer amongst minions

49
If you divulge info that the company deems to be secret, you can be fired on the spot........

50
Yes, but its another EF myth like peeing standing up when the headline has become an urban myth.

"Confidential" has to mean something specific, not just something that they wish you wouldn't tell people. You cannot get through life without divulging your salary info. A company would need to specify in the labour contract that your package is clearly defined as confidential and falls into the terms of that part of the law. Otherwise, they cannot do what you say.

And to say that somebody anonymous posting on a site about the range of their salary for an unknown company is somehow at risk for that is hyperbole

51
If you are expecting to earn that kind of money I don't know why you don't go to one of the large companies such as KPMG or PWC and get the information straight from the horse's mouth. Of course you will need to pay for their time as opposed to on here...

I did that when I was transferred abroad and received invaluable information and advice.

52
What is most worrying is that these kinds of people can get such a salary.

53
have you been offered the job, or are you just looking? if you are currently in private practice the transition to inhouse practice can be absolutely brutal, and even more so if you are attempting the transition on foreign soil where you may be isolated from the multinational's God Pod unless it is a Swiss-based company. bear in mind, as well, that your work permit in Switzerland will be tied to your new employer, and changing jobs anywhere in Europe will be very difficult since many EU multinationals require PhD's from their lawyers (similar to a US LLM but with an apprenticeship). oh, and Europeans take a much different view of attorneys than their US or UK counterparts, i.e. they are much more likely to treat you like shit and have zero appreciation for anything other than listening and scrivening.

Switzerland is a wonderful, wonderful country, but she is also a harsh mistress and is particularly fond of chewing up Americans. it is not a country I would move to for the money, is what I guess I am saying. an AGC with a large multinational in the US can easily make USD 500k after bonus and LTI ́s, and that will go a helluva lot further than CHF 500k.

P.S. I am proud to declare that I easily make 500k annually...in SEK.

54
you don't get rich by paying money for stuff you can get for free!

55

Luckily I saw the smiley...the comment itself is almost "groan-worthy"....

56
Congratulations to the OP. One indicator of successful you are is how many people are jealous of you.

You're probably just chuckling to yourself while reading this thread, as your butler polishes your shoes and you sip your $500 bottle of wine.

Dan

57
Dan,

I'm not sure that it is jealousy. Perhaps more a realization that the more people earn the cheaper they are...

58
The same goes the other way around as well: No amount of money in the US gets you the swiss lifestyle.

Just a few examples: here your children can WALK to school and not be driven by SUVs you don't bump into homeless people all the time even in large cities. everyone is covered by basic health insurance go skiing w/o having to take a few hour flight etc. there are a lot of things one can not buy that you have in Switzerland and you don't in the US.

As the two countries are as different as possible, it does not really make sense to compare them by the same measure. Of course if the only way for you to measure quality of life is by what you personally OWN, then CH is NOT for you.

But maybe you might want to take a look at the Mercer's list about quality of life. You will notice the US doesn't rank to well :-)

59
Jealousy?

Hm, let's put it that way: If I would be earning anything above 300 K CHF, I doubt that I would worry about the basic cost of living, or getting advice about the price of meat in Switzerland...

So... maybe the numbers looks good but the guy's behavior does not make me anything like jealous. Maybe more worrying that he works in Law... Are those people really in touch with real world (real world is what is happening for the large majority of people in the country you live in)?

I mean the guy is not even sure that anything above 360K USD is enough for basic cost of living in Switzerland... I wonder what would be when his opinion is asked at work...

60
Ouch! someone who hasn't been to Geneva or Lausanne...