Relative earnings

Visas, Permits, Passports and Naturalization
1
Hi there everyone

I have been offered a position in Zurich transferring from London and whilst I have been trying to compare like with like on cost of living comparators I would like some external thoughts.

A UK salary of £70K turning into a CH salary of CHF120K

now CHF120K translates to £80K which is about a 15% rise but I am not sure that is enough to offset the increase in cost of living.

Can I get people's thoughts on what a £70k UK salary should transfer across to in Zurich?

Thanks

2
Is it just me or is anyone else having a "Déjà vu" moment...

Anyhoo...

In short the answer to your question is: CHF120k compared to £70k in the UK should be more than enough right now.

Now comes the ifs and buts bit. Will this CHF120k offer you the same standard of living in 5 years time? Well noone knows as you are exposed to an exchange rate risk so it could be better it could be worse depending on what your expectations are.

The second thing you haven't taken into consideration is the tax implication. £70k in the UK means £52k after tax or £47k if you include NI contributions. A fair comparison would have to take into consideration the tax and Swiss equivalent of NI contributions (AHV + Health insurance). If you do that then you will find that CHF120k will translate to CHF106k after tax (Quellensteuer for a single guy with no kids and no relegious beliefs), and if you add the AHV @ 5% (off the top of my head) + health insraunce at max CHF3k a year then you end up with a figure close to CHF98k which based on today's exchange rate will translate to about £65k which is £18k more than what you would get in the UK. What is interesting is that you can take as much as 38% depreciation in the CHF before you start worrying if CHF120k will offer you a worse standard of living. [£65k x 1.5 / £47k = 2.07 => (2.07 - 1.5) / 1.5 = 38.3% ] => or simply 18 / 47

The end.

Please sticky this!

3
Sorry Love Doctor,

Do I detect that this kind of question is a common one?

In which case, is there a site you could recommend that would help me?

4
This site is very helpful if you use the search function

5
It is VERY expensive to live in Switzerland. Many of us live across the borders and most of us shop either in Germany or France. Mobile phones subscriptions are expensive, rent, the cost of living is very high. You need to take into account things like flights home and travelling expenses to visit family. Personally I think 15% is not enough to warrant the move. However, that is only my opinion.

6
put in "cost of living" to the search box upper right hand of this page. First hit is one that would probably interest you:

Cost of living vs London

ps - not sure it is a good enough offer...

7
Yes very common indeed.

Anyway see my first reply for a slightly more informative answer so you don't have to go through a lot of stuff just to find your answer

What about 38% as explained above?

Why not?

Looking forward to the OP's thread about what the social life is like and how approachable the women are

(assuming he is a straight single guy of course)

8
Money aside, do you want to move? Do you have a choice? Is it a permanent transfer or just a fixed term?

As I tell all my clients, it is not all about what you earn but what you spend!

9

I don't know...I am used to thinking EUR v. CHF so maybe I got it backwards...obviously it is enough to live on, especially if it is for a single person...but I thought a rule of thumb from the UK is 2 CHF per 1 GBP? Anyways, I would think 130 CHF is a great offer so 120 isn't far off. Am I making any sense...

10
wait until they find out that migros doesn't sell alcohol

11
If you posted your position, people in similar could advise better. I would say that 70KGBP is nearer 135-140KCHF though, in I.T. in Zurich

12
agree. 70k gbp is around 135 chf.

13
Actually, mobile phone subscriptions are one of the few things that are cheap in this country... Rent, depending on where you are living, can be pretty affordable so basically it comes down to how well you manage your CHF's so CHF 120K may be a lot for some people whilst for others not so...

14
I would hazard a guess that only a handfull of EFers are genuine frontaliers. I have never shopped in France or Germany and I would guess that "most" EFers do not shop over the border either.

Yes, groceries are expensive, but petrol is cheaper than in most of Europe and rents in bigger towns are no worse than London, Paris or NYC, for example.

15
Rent around here is certainly worse than London or NYC. Always depends on how far away from the centre you want to be.

16
I came here ten years ago, from a £50K salary + 10% bonus + fully expensed car + bupa. This was deemed to be worth about ~140K CHF. Once the tax rates, other deductions and cost of living were taken into account, we were slightly better off in terms of lifestyle than we had been in the UK.

£70K to CHF 120K may, therefore, mean you're slightly worse off.

But the skiing is better here than in the UK.

17
The question is, which relative do you mean?

Uncle, aunt, cousin or closer family?

I'm not sure they'd be willing to divulge in case you call on them when you get a cheap crappy Christmas present when you know for a fact that they get a hefty bonus.

18
I am married and get half of what you have been offered. We still live without any issues not above average luxury but we are happy.

Some need to know that all on EF are not on 120 K + /year.. its good to have a salary this high. Lost of swiss live on less than this amount!

We have 4 room apmt (not in a city center but good transport here in CH), eat out 3 - 4 times a month, movie once a month etc. We do most of our shopping at ALDI and LIDL and quality is about the same as in COOP or Migros.

Oh yes, we make lobster dinners on Bdays!!

Wish you all the very best!

19
Sorry but this is nonsense. "This was deemed to be worth about CHF140k" ten years ago means nothing ten years later, a lot of things have changed amongst those things is a massive devaluation of the pound. So you can see why £50k + 10% was translated to CHF140k, as you used to get 2.3 to the pound, so 50x1.1x2.3 = 138, if you make the same assumptions using today's rates, then £70 will be worth around CHF105, but obviously the perception is that the Swiss frank will not stay that strong for that long and hence why some people will be looking to get more than a straight forex conversion of the Gross income per anum. I personally don't think that £70k would translate to £70k x 2.3 or CHF161k. (using the rate from 10 years ago)

20
Also don't forget that employee protection is not the same in CH as in the UK. So you need to take the risk factor of the possibility of getting layed off with 3 month notice period basta, into account. This, in my opinion, is something many expats forget to negotiate in to their new salary.