2nd pillar contributions by employers

Life Hacking
1

Hi all,

I’m in a new job with a Swiss company after 6 years in CH with an international company. I knew that the salary was worse and that the benefits were nearly non-existent, but now that I have my first real salary slip, its a bit worse than I expected. That leads me to two questions about standard practices in all of YOUR places of work.

  1. Accident insurance - we are charged back the cost of the insurance for coverage outside the workplace. Its legal, but the cost savings vs goodwill potential doesn’t make sense to me. (cost is about 50 CHF per month)

  2. 2nd pillar / LPP. They are only covering the minimum requirements, or about 85k (https://www.vita.ch/-/media/vita2/dokumente/informationen/vita-berufliche-vorsorge-einfach-erklaert.pdf?la=fr and https://retireinprogress.com/swiss-pension-system/3/ have good explainations)

To me, the 2nd pillar is a nice backup option, but I do at least want complete coverage (and matching!) for my whole salary. Do most of you only get the minimum legal coverage? I did think to ask about this one when I got my verbal offer, and they did say that the complete salary was covered, but I think HR didn’t actually understand the system well. Regardless, there’s nothing either way in my contract, which is my fault.

tldr: Do you pay for any part of your employer sponsored accident insurance? Is your whole salary considered when contributing to the 2nd pillar? Looking forward to hearing your experiences!

2

In my case yes, as a percentage of the salary. Full private coverage though.

Yes, but this is above the minimum legal requirements. Strictly speaking the law only enforces 2nd pillar contribution for salaries between CHF 24’885 and CHF 85’320. If you earn more, then they don’t have to pay for the part above that. Then, the percentage over which the contribution is computed is not that net salary, once has to substract the montant de coordination / Koordinationsabzug, which should be about 25k.

3

I work in financial services and here the pensions contribution is an important part of the salary which is checked carefully by the employees before accepting a job. In my current job, the employer covers the full salary (fixed only, no variable/bonus payments) and pays 75% of the contrîbtions. The remaining 25% is paid by the employee. A generous arrangement, thats quite substantial over the years.

4

~9%-13% contribution by employee depending on age, ~15% by employer. No limit. Vested benefit amount seems to go up every month as ~15% of salary. I am a state employee.