Salary increases to hit 10-year high
Swiss workers are to get their biggest salary increases for 10 years, pushing employers' wage bills up by SFr12.5 billion ($7.5 billion) in 2001.
The figures, released by the Swiss Economics Ministry, constitute a increase of about three per cent over the previous year.
The ministry says average household income should rise by around five per cent when tax discounts and other savings are taken into account.
Trade unions have welcomed the boost in salaries but say that there is still room for improvement.
"With this salary round, unions have managed to close the gap in cost of living increases that was refused by employers in the nineties," said Paul Rechsteiner, the head of the Swiss Association of Trade Unions.
But he added that discrepancies remained because employers continued to judge salaries on an individual performance-related basis.
swissinfo with agencies
In compliance with the JTI standards
More: SWI swissinfo.ch certified by the Journalism Trust Initiative
Contributions under this article have been turned off. You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here. Please join us!
If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.