Swiss unions demand two percent pay rise for 2027

Swiss trade union umbrella organisation Travail Suisse is calling for wages to rise by two percent next year, SRF reported on Monday. It says higher living costs, increased company productivity and years of stagnant wages justify the demand.

Wages rose by 1.6 percent in real terms last year after stagnating for a decade. Travail Suisse says households are under growing financial pressure, partly because of higher health insurance premiums. It argues that workers should benefit more from companies’ increased revenues and that higher wages are needed to protect purchasing power.

The health sector is under particular pressure. The Syna trade union is demanding wage increases of between five and six percent in the industry. It says many employers postponed pay improvements because they expected the implementation of the nursing initiative to create additional costs. According to the unions, the financial impact will not be as high as initially feared.

Syna has submitted a popular initiative in the canton of Jura calling for more nursing jobs and a four percent wage increase. The union has warned that it could launch similar initiatives in other cantons if conditions do not change.

According to the unions, cooperation with employers is working well in the main construction sector, where wages have been automatically adjusted to inflation since the beginning of the year. They will be increased by at least the rate of inflation each year for the next five years. The unions also describe cooperation in the timber industry and building-envelope sector as positive.

Wage growth in retail has been weak overall in recent years, Travail Suisse says, but cooperation between unions and employers has been constructive in places where it exists.

The employers’ association rejected the union demands in an article on its website. It criticised what it called the unions’ “well-known claims” and said companies already pass on a large share of productivity gains to workers, more than companies in any other European country. It also said health insurance premiums were manageable for an average household.

The employers’ association expects average nominal wage growth of one percent in 2027. The two sides also disagree over how increases should be distributed. Employers want to focus primarily on high-performing employees, while unions are calling for general wage increases.

The KOF Swiss Economic Institute at ETH Zurich expects wages to rise by around 1.2 percent in 2027, based on responses from 3,500 of the 8,000 companies it surveyed about wage expectations. With inflation forecast at 0.5 percent, that would represent real wage growth of 0.7 percent. However, the surveyed companies expect inflation of 1.1 percent, which would leave real wages and purchasing power unchanged.