What's a fair wage for your cleaner? The usual wage in your canton, and about 1.8% more each year

How the calculator arrives at your wage

Three figures from real data, two steps for your case. Every figure on this page comes from the same sources:

1. 1

   The minimum: the floor

   The NAV for domestic work requires CHF 20.35 an hour, CHF 22.30 with four years of experience or an EBA, CHF 24.55 with an EFZ (Art. 5 NAV). It applies from 5 hours a week with the same household. Below that, only cantonal or municipal minimum wages bind, for example CHF 24.59 in Geneva from the first hour.

2. 2

   The usual wage: the starting point

   quitt analysed 10,971 active contracts (2025 data): CHF 32 an hour gross on average across the cantons, from CHF 27 (Ticino) to CHF 35 (Nidwalden). The calculator starts from your canton's figure.

3. 3

   What Clino households pay

   For comparison: Clino households pay their cleaner a median of CHF 30 gross, the middle half CHF 27.50 to 35 (28 contracts, as of October 2026).

4. 4

   Experience: up to CHF 2 less

   With no experience we set the wage CHF 2 below the usual one, at four years at the usual one, and CHF 0.50 more for each year in between. Four years, because that is where the NAV puts its step too. With training (EBA or EFZ) higher minimums apply: count it as four years.

5. 5

   More tasks: up to CHF 3 more

   For every task beyond cleaning (childcare, cooking, ironing), CHF 1 more, at most CHF 3 above the usual wage. If she mostly looks after the children, she is a nanny, and a different market applies.

This is Clino's rule of thumb inside the fair range, not a legal requirement. Above the minimum, the two of you decide.

You clean yourself and want to know whether your wage is right? Use the hourly wage check for cleaners and the overview Your rights as a cleaner.

When to raise the wage, and by how much

No law requires a yearly raise. It only becomes mandatory if her wage would otherwise fall below her minimum. The minimum moves in three cases:

• Four years of experience

  With four years of experience in household work, the NAV minimum rises from CHF 20.35 to 22.30 (from 5 hours a week, Art. 5 NAV). In Geneva, the cantonal rate rises from CHF 24.59 to 24.85.

• A new minimum

  The Federal Council raised the NAV minimum by 2% on 1 January 2026 and extended the NAV to the end of 2028. Until then the federal rate stays the same.

• More holiday with years of service

  Some cantonal NAVs give a fifth week of holiday: Zurich, Lucerne, Glarus, Appenzell Ausserrhoden, Appenzell Innerrhoden, St. Gallen and Jura after 10 years of service; Vaud and Geneva after 20 years of service. On an hourly wage, holiday pay then rises from 8.33% to 10.64%.

The custom is a pay review once a year, on her work anniversary or in January. A good benchmark is how wages move: in 2025, nominal wages in Switzerland rose 1.8%, with 0.2% inflation (FSO). At CHF 30, that is CHF 0.55 an hour. In the first four years experience comes on top, CHF 0.50 a year by our rule. Household help wages rose too: according to quitt, in about 92% of the cantons in 2025.

If tasks are added, such as the children or cooking, that is a reason to raise outside the yearly review. If you would rather add something once a year, first read when a Christmas bonus becomes an obligation.

What households pay in each canton

Regional differences are substantial, and they mostly follow the language border: in German-speaking Switzerland the average gross hourly wage is CHF 31 to 35, in French-speaking Switzerland CHF 28 to 31, in Ticino CHF 27. Geneva has the highest minimum wage in Switzerland at CHF 24.59, yet households there pay CHF 28 on average, less than in any German-speaking canton.

The table shows, per canton, the usual wage and the fair range the calculator works with. The legal minimums and the net wage per canton are in the guide to a cleaner's hourly wage.

Values are averages across all household help (cleaning, childcare, care) in active employment contracts and may vary by qualification and tasks.

Frequently asked questions about your cleaner's wage

More on Cleaner Wages in Switzerland