The Federal Statistical Office has just published the first results of the 2024 Swiss Earnings Structure Survey.
An improvement, yes. But progress is still far too slow.
The median-based pay gap between women and men now stands at 8.4%, compared with 9.5% in 2022 and 11.5% in 2018.
Behind this median, disparities remain deep:
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In senior positions, the gap still reaches 14%.
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Nearly two out of three people earning less than CHF 4,500 per month are women.
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Low-wage sectors (hospitality, accommodation, retail, personal services) remain heavily feminised, while high value-added sectors are still largely male-dominated.
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And for salaries above CHF 20,000, 75% of bonus recipients are men, compared with only 25% women.
These figures confirm what we observe every day in the field:
Pay inequalities are structural, fuelled by occupational segregation, part-time work, women’s more limited access to senior roles, and by everyday sexism and unconscious bias that persist despite public commitments.
We look forward to the publication of average salary data, which will allow us to distinguish the explained part of the gap (structural factors) from the unexplained part, directly linked to gender.
EQUAL-SALARY Foundation reaffirms its commitment to:
- enable organisations to verify and guarantee equal pay and equal opportunities
- support them in identifying pay gaps
- foster the cultural change needed to achieve real wage equality.
Equal pay should no longer be a distant objective.
It must become a measurable, verifiable, and lasting reality.
The press release from the Federal Statistical Office is available here.
Also worth watching (in German): the SRF 19h30 news segment covering these results, featuring testimony from Anne Lise Michellod, HR Director of Loterie Romande, as well as an interview with EQUAL-SALARY President Simonetta Sommaruga.
