I filled out a salary survey from Swiss Engineering STV earlier this year. The results arrived a week before
This is a income distribution per quartile from students in an internship to top manager. A specialist without management responsibilities starts at 107k/year. Median of 121k/year.
AFAIK, salaries in engineering are a bit lower compared to other economic activities. So, it may be reasonable to use these numbers as a minimum. Thatâs my impression, what do others think?
About the car, ask how much youâre allowed to spend on the leasing (incl. insurance) + fuel. Then you can assess if itâs really worth it or a gimmick.
There is a website called numbeo where you can put in what you earn in city X and how much you need in city y to sustain similar life style.
You can try it and see what it yealds - I have found it to be pretty accurate for bit cities etc but obviously is not to be used for negotiation or anything like that - just to get a bit of an idea.
It is very easy to underestimate how expensive life is in Switzerland.
Food/grocery is crazily expensive, Japan-like. Health insurance for your family can rival your rent. Property prices - with 100k annual gross income and 2+2 family the time to save the obligatory 20% down payment for that proverbial 1M apartment stretches past life expectancy.
A Swiss family 2+2 ( they prefer 1.1 kid) might have a grandfathered rent apartment or a publicly owned apartment with lower than market rent (big big big saving), they might trust their doctor and save a little bit taking health insurance with limited doctor choice, one spouse might have a part-time job supplementing the otherâs âmainâ income, but youâll have to build all that and apply for a subsided apartment etc while not saving anything for years to come.
And if you rent in a cheaper quarter you might soon learn why it is cheaper and youâll either have to pay up to move where it is peaceful and quiet or out of the city where it is always peaceful and quiet, this is Switzerland after all
And all these saying that Swiss survive on less: yes, perhaps, due to the above, and donât forget they divorce often, and then the newly living apart are supplanted with social money because of course if you split 80k gross into two households thatâs too little for the âSwissâ standards.
Ask if you could get money instead of a car and petrol reimbursement (and the tax difference of it).
Maybe you donât need to burn through a new expensive leased car every 3 years (or whatever the company policy) but you could buy a cheaper used one and keep it for a long time.
This is 100% true. We pay a very low rent for our 5.5 room flat in Zurich city as we have been in it for 20 yrs - if we were to move today to Zurich we would pay about 2000 CHF a month more than we currently do.
In my experience there is also year 1 and then the rest. What I mean by that is when you move to a new place year 1 is very expensive as you have things to buy but also you donât know your way around etc. Then it gets a lot better.
All in all and without knowing anything else, I think 100k for someone with your experience that your company wants to move to HQ, you should get a fair bit more than that. Consider that a new grad in a good company will get about 80k.
just an update, i received my formal job offer last week, and its 104000chf & âmiddle classâ car and 1000chf per month housing allowance for the first 3 months.
Most people said its not great but you âcan make it workâ
To be honest it has made the situation much more stressful, as we will be sacrificing a lot by moving away from our support network, and according to the internet Switzerland is not very kid friendly.
Iâm still trying to understand how both parents must work, but kids come home for lunch, and if they donât come home we need to pay to Mittagtisch?
They have agreed to assist with flights back to SA for up to 2 years up to a value of 4000chf. Which helps a lot, but what about after 2 years.
If im correct that my nett income should then be around 7700 to 6650 (tax calculators give different values)
Lets say 7000 less
2700 rent
1000 Medical insurance
2500 Groceries (please help if this is accurate)
That leaves me with 700 CHF with
that might look better once we become a 2 income household, but how do you manage the kids, Boy will turn 4 in Jan 2026 and my daughter is 6.
Thanks again for the constructive feedback. I dont want to sound privileged, but I feel if they really want to employ me they must make it worth my while.
We (family) eat pretty fresh and healthy and Iâm not too clever at finding everything at a bargain ( I do manage to fish out the reduced stuff on sale quite a bit, though) but our supermarket weekly shop is usually 250-300.
104k for a family of 4 is not great. It may or may not be the appropriate salary for what you do - but that we donât know. Net income, rent, healthcare will depend on where you live - you provide no info.
It will be a Regional Sales manager (international) role for a steel product.
Head office is in Zug, and they will require me to work from the office, so i will need to live not too far. From what ive seen Canton Zug is very expensive for Rent, so we will most probably look for a place in Aarau or nearby
Check if under your visa you are even allowed to live in a different canton (you didnât specify your nationalities or visa).
Our costs for a family of 5 is around 5000-6000 per month and that excludes tax and housing costs.
When both parents are working, you need to find childcare. Full time, this costs around 2500 per kid per month so is expensive. As your kids will be older and in school/kindergarten, you need proportionately less care and so maybe looking at 3500 per month for both kids.
Zug has the lowest tax rate in Switzerland and that might offset the higher rents.
As Phil points out your permit will be issued by the Canton where you will live, not where you work. It is your employerâs responsibility to arrange this for you
With 104k gross, a married single earner with two kids pays no tax in ZG. From your gross, you will need to deduct 5.3% for state pension, 1.1% unemployment insurance and whatever your pension fund costs. Assuming 8%, that leaves a net income of 7400 a month.
As other mentioned, itâs highly probable that you have to live in canton Zug at least the first year because of the residence permit type B conditions. Two main conditions are that you have to live in the canton where your employer is located and income tax is calculated and deducted by your employer.
This is the canton Zug tax office website, some parts are translated to English, but mostly in German. The relevant part here is Quellensteuertarife (withholding tax rates).
My first impression is that going from ~8â600 CHF before taxes and social deductions to 6â600 net income is a lot. 1 earner, 2 children, and no church tax should yield a very low income tax (withholding tax/quellensteuer). Hereâs the Canton Zug withholding tax calculator, this one should give a more precise number:
Then, child allowance. Not a lot, but quite welcome:
Your groceries number makes sense if you have diet rich in beef or lamb. I also come from a place where fatty and delicious cows are plentiful, but thatâs not the case in Switzerland We have learned to substitute a lot of that beef by cheese, chicken and pork.
The rent of 2â700 CHF for a family of 4 in Zug is a bit on the edge. Possible, but it will take a while to find it. The housing allowance is quite probable targeted at this.
Finally, Aargau is cheaper for rent. But, no direct train from Aarau to Zug. The direct train is from Lenzburg, also in canton Aargau.
I would say 19 years experience, family and move to Zug, 104 + some incentives is pretty low, for a family of 4 would mean just getting by, no savings, no restaurants, just enough to live day to day, everything that concerns children is extremely expensive here, if your wife finds a job consider whether it is even worth to pay then several thousands chf per month for children to be looked after. I would say if that offer was just for a single person then sure a good start at least to settle and then look around how things are, but for a familyâŠquite modest, on the other hand all salaries in switzerland being damped, so hr low ball everyone, wouldnât be surprised if in couple of years only banks with employees remain here, the rest is outsourcedâŠ
