Salaries increase despite economic slowdown

The greatest wage increases were seen in the hospitality business Keystone

The salaries of Swiss workers have risen 0.8 per cent over the past year, according to figures released Monday by the Federal Statistical Office (FSO). Given that inflation was negative in 2012, purchasing power even increased by 1.5 per cent.

Wage increases were on par with 2011 (+1.0 per cent) and 2010 (+0.8 per cent), benefiting almost all economic sectors. Real wages increased however for the first time since 2009.

The greatest increase – 2.4 per cent – was seen in the hospitality business, thanks to a higher minimum wage and the introduction of a 13th salary for workers benefiting from a collective bargaining agreement.

Large increases were also measured in the arts, entertainment and recreation sector (1.7 per cent); in postal, courier and express services (1.5 per cent); and in the insurance business (1.5 per cent).

Salary hikes in the financial  sector were also less substantial than in 2011, rising just 0.7 per cent, a reflection of the uncertainty surrounding the business since the 2008 crisis according to the FSO.

The losers last year were the motor trade, with no salary hikes for its workers in 2012, IT specialists who only gained an extra 0.2 per cent and the healthcare sector that did hardly better.

With wages increasing slightly more than the national average in the past year, the services sector (0.9 per cent) did better than the industrial one (0.7 per cent).

For the period between 2008 and 2012 the services industry also saw a 1.4 per cent (one per cent in real terms) average increase in salaries, whereas the industrial sector registered an increase of 1.3 per cent (0.8 per cent in real terms).

The chemical and pharmaceutical sector with 1.4 per cent increases helped boost the overall industrial remuneration gains, along with another major exporter, the machine and tool business, both benefiting from a better than expected business environment.    

The Statistical Office says that salary increases were generally decided in autumn 2011, at a time when uncertainty about the global economic and financial environment was still high and deflation was expected to be around -0.3 per cent.