Court overturns minimum wages in Zurich and Winterthur
Cantons are permitted to introduce a minimum wage as a socio-political measure within certain limits.
Keystone / Gaetan Bally
Select your language
Generated with artificial intelligence.
Listening: Court overturns minimum wages in Zurich and Winterthur
The administrative court of canton Zurich has annulled the ordinance on the introduction of a municipal minimum wage in the Swiss cities of Zurich and Winterthur. It said the ordinances violated cantonal law.
This content was published on
2 minutes
Keystone-SDA
Deutsch
de
Verwaltungsgericht hebt Mindestlöhne in Zürich und Winterthur auf
Original
According to a press release issued by Zurich administrative court on Friday, the cantons are permitted to introduce a minimum wage as a socio-political measure within certain limits under the case law of the Federal Court.
The minimum wages provided for in the cities of Zurich and Winterthur are within the permissible limits and are compatible with economic freedom and the principle of the primacy of federal law.
However, the court argued that neither the constitution of canton Zurich nor the cantonal social welfare law allowed the municipalities to intervene in private employment relationships to prevent poverty. The ordinances were therefore in breach of cantonal law. The court upheld the appeals lodged against this. The ruling is not yet legally binding.
In June 2023, voters in the city of Zurich and Winterthur clearly approved the introduction of municipal minimum wages. In Zurich, the minimum wage should have been CHF23.90 ($27.10) per hour, in Winterthur CHF23. In the run-up to the vote, opponents also expressed legal concerns.
This news story has been written and carefully fact-checked by an external editorial team. At SWI swissinfo.ch we select the most relevant news for an international audience and use automatic translation tools such as DeepL to translate it into English. Providing you with automatically translated news gives us the time to write more in-depth articles.
If you want to know more about how we work, have a look here, if you want to learn more about how we use technology, click here, and if you have feedback on this news story please write to english@swissinfo.ch.
What factors should be taken into account when inheriting Swiss citizenship abroad?
Should there be a limit to the passing on of Swiss citizenship? Or is the current practice too strict and it should still be possible to register after the age of 25?
Is your place of origin, your Heimatort, important to you?
Every Swiss citizen has a Heimatort, a place of origin, but many have never visited theirs. What’s your relationship with your Heimatort? What does it mean to you?
This content was published on
Scientists have shown that bonobos combine their calls into complex sound sequences that resemble combinations of human words.
This content was published on
US parliamentarians have threatened the UN Human Rights Council with sanctions similar to those against the International Criminal Court (ICC).
This content was published on
Thanks to abundant snowfall, lift operators benefited from increased visitor numbers, with the number of guests jumping by 12% year-on-year.
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.