Your own cleaning business or employed - what actually pays off?
The honest answer first: in private households, going self-employed is usually not your choice to make. What that means for your money, your paperwork and your pension.
For most cleaners working in private homes, self-employment is not a free choice: the compensation office (Ausgleichskasse) decides - and if you clean other people's flats with their equipment, it almost always says no. As an employee you pay 5.3 % AHV and your employer pays the same again; self-employed, you pay up to 10 % alone.
- Unemployment benefit does not exist for the self-employed - not even after 20 years of contributions.
- Accident cover, sick pay and a pension fund are all voluntary when self-employed, meaning you pay for them.
- In exchange, without a pension fund you may pay up to CHF 36,288 into pillar 3a instead of CHF 7,258.
This applies when
You clean private households in Switzerland and are wondering whether to go self-employed.
Would the compensation office recognise you as self-employed?
The key point first: you cannot simply declare yourself self-employed. The compensation office examines your situation and decides. These five questions are exactly the criteria it looks at.
Status check in five questions
No sign-up, no data - the result stays in your browser.
Who owns the cleaning products, vacuum and equipment?
What it costs you - figure by figure
Slide your expected annual income. On the left what you pay as an employee, on the right what you carry yourself when self-employed.
| Employed | Self-employed | |
|---|---|---|
| AHV / IV / EO | CHF 1'272employer adds the same again | CHF 1'3435.59 % effective |
| Unemployment insurance | CHF 264covered | does not exist |
| Accident | employer must insure you | voluntary, at your own cost |
| Pension fund (BVG) | from CHF 22,680 per employer | voluntary, at your own cost |
| Pillar 3a, maximum | CHF 7'258 | CHF 4'80020 % of income |
The four levels side by side
Paperwork
As an employee under the simplified procedure, the household registers you with the compensation office, settles the contributions and deducts the tax at the same time. You get a payslip and no longer have to declare that wage separately. Self-employed, you register yourself, issue invoices, keep books on income and expenses, file a tax return with business accounts, and pay contributions in instalments - with a top-up bill if you earned more than estimated.
Money
The difference is not the hourly rate, it is who carries the social contributions. Employed, you pay 5.3 % AHV and the household adds another 5.3 %. Self-employed, you pay it all - thanks to the degressive scale only a little over 5 % at low incomes, but the full 10 % from CHF 60,500. On top of that, the self-employed pay family-allowance contributions that an employer would otherwise carry alone.
Insurance
This is where the gap is widest. As an employee you are covered against accidents without transferring a franc yourself if you work under 8 hours a week for the same household - and you are insured against unemployment. The self-employed have no access to unemployment insurance at all. Not because they contribute too little, but because the law does not provide for it. If a client drops out, the income drops out.
Pension
For the AHV both count equally - what matters is that contributions are declared at all. The difference lies in the second and third pillars.
The point almost everyone misses
The pension fund only starts at CHF 22,680 of annual salary - and that is per employer. Someone earning CHF 8,000 at each of five households reaches CHF 40,000 and still has no pension fund. Exactly like a self-employed person. The difference: without a pension fund you may pay up to 20 % of your income into pillar 3a, to a maximum of CHF 36,288 - instead of the CHF 7,258 open to employees who have one. If your retirement would otherwise be the AHV alone, pillar 3a is not optional.
When self-employment genuinely pays off
The cases where it works out do exist. They all look similar:
- You clean more than private flats - offices, stairwells, end-of-tenancy jobs - where bringing your own equipment is the norm and recognition comes more easily.
- You have enough clients that losing one does not sink you, and you can accept or turn down jobs.
- You want to grow and employ someone yourself - in which case a company of your own is unavoidable anyway.
For two or three regular households on Tuesday and Friday mornings, it almost never pays off.
What happens when it goes wrong
Anyone presenting as self-employed without being so has a problem - and the household has a bigger one. If the compensation office later finds it was an employment relationship after all, it reclaims the contributions, up to five years back. The household pays, not you. That is exactly why many families now insist on registering properly: it protects both sides.
Common questions
Is a commercial register entry or a company enough proof?
No. A register entry, your own company or a trade licence say nothing about how the AHV classifies your relationship with an individual client. The compensation office looks at the actual circumstances, not the paperwork - and it can treat you as self-employed for one client and employed for the next.
Can I be both at the same time?
Yes, and it is common. You can be recognised as self-employed for office cleaning while being employed by two private households. Each relationship is assessed separately.
How do I apply for recognition?
In writing to the compensation office of your canton of residence, before you start. You describe your activity, your clients, your materials and your infrastructure. The office decides and confirms in writing. Ask beforehand, not afterwards - a retroactive reclassification is expensive.
I am employed but earn too little at each household for a pension fund. What can I do?
Two routes. First, pillar 3a, into which you may pay considerably more without a pension fund. Second: if your combined earnings across several employers exceed CHF 22,680, you can insure yourself voluntarily with the Substitute Occupational Benefit Institution (Auffangeinrichtung BVG). It costs money, but it closes a real gap.
The fine print
How the calculator arrives at its figures
The employee side uses the 2026 federal rates: 5.3 % AHV/IV/EO and 1.1 % ALV on each side. The self-employed side follows the official degressive contribution scale of the Federal Social Insurance Office - lower limit CHF 10,100, upper limit CHF 60,500, maximum rate 10.00 %, minimum contribution CHF 530 per year. Values between the published anchors are interpolated; the deviation from the official table stays under CHF 20.
What the calculator does not show
Tax. Under the simplified procedure the 5 % withholding tax settles federal, cantonal and municipal tax on that wage. Self-employed, you are taxed on your profit in the ordinary way - depending on where you live and what else you earn, that can be cheaper or dearer. Also not included: sick-pay insurance, professional liability, and the cost of your own materials.
Family allowances
Since 2013 the self-employed are also subject to the family allowance system and pay those contributions themselves. The rate varies by canton. As an employee, your employer carries this contribution in full.
You are employed - and the household does not know how it works?
Clino guides your employer step by step through registration, payroll and insurance. For you that means: properly registered, properly insured, and a correct payslip every month.
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Salvador Jovells, founder of Clino
Verified July 2026