Swiss gender pay gap reaches its lowest recorded level

Women earned 15.7% less than men in Switzerland in 2024, according to new figures from the Federal Statistical Office. The measure is based on gross monthly wages standardised to a full time workload, allowing comparisons across different working patterns. It marks the lowest recorded level in the available series, although the average difference remains substantial.

The economy wide gap stood at 19.0% in 2018, fell to 18.0% in 2020, and reached 16.2% in 2022. The latest decline confirms a long running movement in the right direction. It also shows the pace of change. Over the past two years, the gap narrowed by only 0.5 percentage points.

The figures cover both private and public employment across Switzerland. They capture differences in pay between women and men, but do not by themselves explain why those differences exist. Men and women remain unevenly distributed across industries, occupations and management levels. Those patterns influence the headline result, particularly in a labour market where senior roles and highly paid sectors continue to be male dominated.

The data give policymakers, employers and workers a clear progress marker. They also leave a sizeable gap for Switzerland’s equality policies to address.

The unexplained portion of the gap was 6.5% in 2024, down from 7.0% in 2022. In cash terms, women earned an average of CHF 640 less per month than men with comparable measured characteristics, compared with CHF 657 two years earlier.

The Federal Statistical Office adjusts for factors including education, tenure, seniority, occupation and industry. These variables explain much of the overall difference because men and women do not hold the same jobs in the same proportions. The remaining figure is known as the unexplained gap.

That residual deserves scrutiny, but it cannot be treated as a direct measurement of discrimination. The available data may not fully capture productivity, exact job responsibilities, bargaining behaviour, language skills, additional training, management experience or the specific demands of a role. Statistical modelling choices also affect the result.

Switzerland’s legal framework prohibits paying a woman less simply because she is a mother or because she is a woman. A lower salary linked to shorter experience, a career break or a move into a lower paid role is not automatically unlawful. The distinction matters when employers, regulators and researchers interpret the figures. A smaller residual is encouraging, yet 6.5% remains a measurable difference after major factors have been taken into account.

Industry makes a decisive difference to the numbers. In the private sector, the overall gap fell from 17.5% in 2022 to 17.2% in 2024, a modest improvement compared with the longer term national trend.

The spread between industries is wide. The gap stood at 7.9% in hotels and restaurants, reached 16.9% in retail, and rose to 17.2% in machinery manufacturing. Financial and insurance activities recorded the largest difference at 30.6%. These figures reflect the way women and men are distributed among occupations, grades and leadership positions within each industry, as well as differences in working patterns and career progression.

Public employers performed better on the headline measure. Across the federal government, cantons and municipalities, the gap fell to 12.8% in 2024, compared with 13.8% in 2022, 15.1% in 2020 and 18.1% in 2018. The public sector therefore recorded a sharper long term decline than the private sector.

The figures do not show that one industry or employer has a single cause. They do show where pay transparency, promotion practices and recruitment pipelines may have the greatest effect. Switzerland’s financial sector, in particular, remains an important test for efforts to improve equality in high paying careers.

Senior managers faced an unexplained gap of 12.4% in 2024, nearly twice the 6.1% recorded among employees without management responsibilities. The senior management figure also rose from 10.6% in 2022, making hierarchy one of the clearest pressure points in the data.

The unexplained gap varied by education. It was lowest, at 3.8%, among people with a degree from a university of applied sciences or a teacher training college. Among employees who had completed vocational training, it stood at 6.6%. These differences cannot establish a cause, but they point to the importance of occupational sorting and access to promotion.

Age and marital status show another pattern. Among employees under 30, the unexplained gap was 2.2%. Among those over 50, it rose to 8.3%. Unmarried employees recorded a gap of 2.7%, while married employees recorded 8.1%.

Those results are consistent with the possibility that motherhood affects career earnings. Time away from paid work, part time employment and slower promotion can reduce accumulated experience and future pay. One cited study found a 3.7% motherhood gap. The evidence does not show that every difference reflects unlawful discrimination. It does show that career paths and family responsibilities remain closely connected to lifetime earnings.

Switzerland has reduced its overall pay gap, but the 2024 figures show that progress is uneven. The public sector has moved further than the private sector, and the unexplained gap has fallen by half a percentage point since 2022. At the same time, senior managers recorded a wider unexplained difference, and financial and insurance activities remained far above the economy wide average.

The statistics support targeted action rather than a single national remedy. Employers can examine pay by role, grade and promotion history, publish clearer salary ranges and review how career breaks affect progression. Large companies have more capacity to run detailed audits, while smaller firms require practical tools that do not create disproportionate administrative burdens.

The data also clarify what national comparisons can and cannot deliver. A zero headline gap would be unlikely while women and men continue to make different choices about industries, working hours, occupations and time out of the labour market. That does not make the measure irrelevant. Tracking the overall gap, the adjusted gap and outcomes by age, industry and hierarchy helps identify where differences persist.

For Swiss workers, the latest figure is both a progress report and a diagnostic. The country has reached its lowest recorded overall gap, yet women still lose an average of CHF 640 a month in the unexplained component. Future assessments will show whether the recent decline becomes a sustained shift.