A Cleaner With Several Employers: Who Registers What for Social Security?

Why each employment relationship is judged on its own

Unlike a flatshare sharing a single cleaner, there's no question of joint employership here at all: each household employs the same person under its own, fully independent employment relationship. There is no mechanism in Swiss social insurance law that automatically adds these relationships together - every compensation office, every accident insurer and every pension fund only looks at the relationship it's responsible for.

The difference from a cleaner shared by several flatmates in the same home is fundamental: there it's ONE employment relationship with several beneficiaries. Here it's SEVERAL, fully independent employment relationships - more in our article on sharing a cleaner in a flatshare.

For you, as one of several employers, that means concretely: you don't need to coordinate with the other households, fill in any joint forms, or even know what she earns elsewhere. You can register your own employment relationship in a few minutes - regardless of what the neighbors do.

Accident insurance: the 8-hour threshold applies per employer

Under Art. 13 UVV, part-time employees are only covered for non-occupational accidents (NBU) if their weekly working time at ONE employer is at least eight hours. Small workloads at different employers aren't added together - if your cleaner works 4 hours for you and 5 hours for the household next door, she stays below the threshold with you even though her total working time is 9 hours.

Occupational accident insurance (BU) is independent of this: it's mandatory for every employment relationship from the very first hour of work - whether 2 or 20 hours a week. Only the additional cover for leisure-time accidents (NBU) depends on the 8-hour threshold at that one employer.

Try the principle below with your own numbers. We cover premiums, reporting deadlines and coverage in full detail in our article on accident insurance for household employees.

The simplified-procedure wage ceiling: CHF 22,680 per employer

The AHV's simplified settlement procedure applies to wages up to CHF 22,680 a year AND per employer (as of 2026). This ceiling explicitly refers to the individual employment relationship - not to what your cleaner earns in total across all her jobs. If each of three households pays CHF 15,000 a year, every single one of them stays within the simplified procedure, even though her combined income is CHF 45,000.

If ONE single employment relationship exceeds the CHF 22,680 ceiling - say because you employ her several days a week - only THAT one employer needs to switch to the ordinary settlement procedure. The other households are unaffected and can keep using the simplified procedure.

Pension fund (BVG): why it almost never applies to small workloads

The BVG entry threshold sits at exactly the same level as the simplified-procedure ceiling - CHF 22,680 a year (2025/2026) - and that's no coincidence: a wage that doesn't cross the one ceiling can't cross the other either. Since this threshold is also checked per employment relationship, virtually every individual small household stays free of a BVG obligation - even when her combined income across several jobs is well above it.

There is one exception, and it comes from your cleaner, not from you: under Art. 46 BVG, she can voluntarily ask an existing pension fund (usually one of her employers', provided its regulations allow it) to insure her total earned income from several small jobs. That's her decision and her initiative - not an obligation that falls on you as an individual employer.

AHV registration and source tax: what each household handles separately

AHV is the simplest part: there's no wage ceiling above which several employers would need to coordinate. Each household registers independently with its own compensation office and pays contributions on what IT pays her - that's it. Even if two households happen to register with the same office, nothing changes: they remain two separate registrations.

Source tax is almost as simple, as long as everyone uses the simplified procedure: each employer withholds a flat 5% from their own wage payment, independent of her other jobs. It only gets more complex in the rarer case of the ordinary procedure - there, the relevant employer has to calculate the rate based on her overall employment degree, and above a gross income of CHF 120,000 a year, the mandatory subsequent ordinary assessment (NOV) also comes into play - a threshold that's practically never reached with small household jobs.

We cover tariffs, permit categories and the 2021 reform in full in our article on source tax for household employees.

Liability for an accident: who pays - and where a real gap can appear

If your cleaner has an accident while working at your home, that's an occupational accident. Only your accident insurer is responsible for it - regardless of weekly hours, because occupational accident cover is mandatory from the very first hour of work. It makes no difference whether she works 2 hours a week for you or 20: as long as you've registered her correctly, your insurer pays.

It's different for an accident during her free time, say on her day off. Here only non-occupational accident insurance (NBU) applies - and that only exists if at least ONE employer employs her for 8 or more hours a week. If none of her employers individually reach that threshold, even though her total hours across all jobs are well above it, a genuine NBU coverage gap appears.

In that case, her own mandatory health insurance (KVG) steps in and covers the accident costs - but with a deductible, co-payment and no daily allowance, unlike UVG. Important: some people deliberately exclude accident cover from their health insurance because they assume they're covered through an employer. Anyone with several small jobs who doesn't reach the 8-hour threshold at any of them should actively check with their health insurer that accident cover stays included.

What actually happens when no insurance applies is covered in our article Cleaner injured without insurance - who pays?.

Frequently asked questions