Is sickness daily-allowance insurance mandatory?
In 15 cantons, yes. In 5 it is optional, and in 6 there is no cantonal rule at all. Which answer applies to you is decided by the standard employment contract of the canton where your household employee works — not by federal law, and not by the canton you live in when the two differ.
In 15 of 26 cantons the cantonal standard employment contract requires sickness daily-allowance cover for household employees. Five leave it expressly optional, six have no such rule.
- Mandatory in ZH, BE, LU, SG, SO, AR, AI, VS and GE among others — optional in ZG, BS, BL, GR and VD
- Typical cover: 80% of the wage, 720 days within 900, premium split in half
- Five cantons have thresholds: TG and SH below a 50% pensum, AI up to 8 h/week, UR and JU for auxiliaries
This applies when
You employ someone in a private household — cleaning, childcare, elder care.
Map: where daily-allowance cover is mandatory
Click a canton to see the terms and the article they rest on. What counts is the place of work: if you live in one canton and have your holiday home cleaned in another, the standard employment contract of the workplace applies.
Pick a canton on the map.
Does the duty apply to your household?
Enter canton, hours and service year. The calculator tells you whether you must insure — and what it costs you if you do not and your employee falls ill.
Daily-allowance check
Yes — in this canton you must insure.
The standard employment contract at the place of work requires the policy. It is dispositive law: you may derogate only in writing, and only as far as the law allows.
- Derogating from it is only valid in writing.
Legal basis: NAV hauswirtschaftliche Arbeitnehmer ZH (LS 821.12), Art. 12 und Art. 26
Which year with you — sick pay grows with years of service.
What you pay yourself without a policy
If she falls ill, in this service year you owe 21 days of wages — around CHF 540.
Calculated on the Zürcher Skala (NAV ZH, max. 6 Monate), as the courts apply it for this canton.
A policy would instead cover 80% of the wage, for up to 720 days.
And because this canton has a liability rule: without cover you answer for exactly what the policy would have paid — beyond the sick-pay period too.
What the insurance actually does
It replaces the wage when your employee falls ill. Not to be confused with her health insurance, which pays doctors and hospitals but never the wage. And not to be confused with accident insurance — accidents are federal law, compulsory in all 26 cantons under the UVG.
The standard the cantonal contracts ask for is almost everywhere the same: 80% of the wage, for 720 days within 900, with the premium split half and half between household and employee. What differs is mainly when it starts paying — usually from the 31st day of illness, in Appenzell Innerrhoden from the third.
What happens without a policy
You owe sick pay under Art. 324a CO either way. It starts after three months of employment, runs three weeks in the first year of service and grows after that — on the Bern, Basel or Zurich scale depending on the canton. That comes out of your own pocket.
In cantons with a duty to insure, something else is easy to miss: an employer who does not insure is liable for exactly the benefits the policy would have paid. Zurich says so expressly in Art. 13a, and so do St. Gallen, Solothurn, Bern, Schaffhausen and Appenzell Ausserrhoden. That can be far more than the sick pay, because a policy runs up to 720 days.
The thresholds almost nobody knows
Five cantons switch the duty off below a threshold — and that is decisive for many private households, where hardly anyone works full time. Thurgau and Schaffhausen exempt a pensum below 50%. Appenzell Innerrhoden requires nothing up to 8 hours a week. Uri and Jura expressly exempt auxiliary and part-time staff.
The reverse inference is wrong, though, and expensive: Zurich and Luzern have no such threshold. Both name the hourly cleaner expressly — Zurich in Art. 26, Luzern in § 28. Three hours of cleaning a week there carries the same duty as a full-time post. On top of that, Bern, Solothurn, Schaffhausen and St. Gallen require a minimum contract length.
Daily sickness benefit is only one of several duties: which other insurances apply to your household is what the social insurance check shows in a minute. And if your cleaner is not registered at all yet, this is the place to start: register a cleaner.
All 26 cantons
As of August 2026, read in each canton's own legal collection. If a canton changes its standard employment contract, this table changes with it — it is generated from the same data as our contracts and dashboard.
| Canton | Status | Terms | Legal basis |
|---|---|---|---|
| Appenzell Ausserrhoden | Mandatory | 80% of the wage, 720 days · from day 31 of the illness | NAV AR (bGS 222.218), Art. 24 |
| Appenzell Innerrhoden | Mandatory | 80% of the wage, 720 days · from day 3 of the illness · no duty up to 8 h/week | NAV HW AI (GS 821.002), Art. 19 |
| Bern | Mandatory | 80% of the wage, 720 days · from day 31 of the illness · open-ended or over 3 month(s) | NAV Hausdienst BE (BSG 222.153.22), Art. 35 Abs. 3 lit. b und Art. 36 |
| Geneva | Mandatory | 80% of the wage, 720 days | CTT-EDom GE (rsGE J 1 50.03), art. 13 |
| Jura | Mandatory | Not binding for auxiliary and part-time staff | CTT économie domestique JU (RSJU 222.153.22), art. 8 al. 4 |
| Lucerne | Mandatory | 80% of the wage, 720 days · from day 31 of the illness | NAV LU (SRL Nr. 854), § 18 |
| Nidwalden | Mandatory | 80% of the wage, 720 days · from day 31 of the illness | NAV Hauswirtschaft NW (223.1), § 17 |
| Obwalden | Mandatory | from day 31 of the illness · The duty sits on the employee | NAV OW (GDB 844.1), Art. 21 |
| Schaffhausen | Mandatory | 80% of the wage, 720 days · from day 31 of the illness · not below a 50% pensum · open-ended or over 3 month(s) | NAV HW SH (221.216), § 31 |
| Solothurn | Mandatory | 80% of the wage, 720 days · from day 31 of the illness · open-ended or over 3 month(s) | NAV Hauswirtschaft SO (BGS 821.321), § 21 |
| St. Gallen | Mandatory | 80% of the wage, 720 days · from day 31 of the illness · open-ended or over 1 month(s) | NAV SG (sGS 513.1), Art. 20 |
| Thurgau | Mandatory | 80% of the wage, 720 days · from day 31 of the illness · not below a 50% pensum | NAV TG (RRV 221.252), § 15, § 17 und § 32 |
| Uri | Mandatory | 80% of the wage, 720 days · from day 31 of the illness · Not binding for auxiliary and part-time staff | Reglement NAV UR (RB 20.1311), Art. 21 |
| Valais | Mandatory | 80% of the wage, 720 days | Arrêté CTT économie domestique VS (RS 221.602), art. 17 |
| Zurich | Mandatory | 80% of the wage, 720 days · from day 31 of the illness | NAV hauswirtschaftliche Arbeitnehmer ZH (LS 821.12), Art. 12 und Art. 26 |
| Basel-Landschaft | Optional, but regulated | 80% of the wage, 720 days | V. über den NAV für Hauspersonal BL (SGS 212.34), § 18 Abs. 5 |
| Basel-Stadt | Optional, but regulated | 80% of the wage, 720 days | NAV Haushalt BS (SG 215.700), § 44 |
| Graubünden | Optional, but regulated | NAV GR (BR 535.200), Art. 18 Abs. 2 | |
| Vaud | Optional, but regulated | 80% of the wage, 720 days · from day 3 of the illness | CTT personnel des ménages privés VD (RSV 222.105.1), art. 21 al. 6-7 |
| Zug | Optional, but regulated | NAV Privathaushalt ZG (BGS 831.521), § 21 Abs. 2 | |
| Aargau | No cantonal rule | NAV Hauspersonal AG (SAR 963.375), §§ 12–13 | |
| Fribourg | No cantonal rule | CTT service de maison FR (RSF 222.5.91), art. 14 et 17 | |
| Glarus | No cantonal rule | NAV HW GL (GS VIII C/12/3) | |
| Neuchâtel | No cantonal rule | CTT service de maison NE (RSN 225.42), art. 24 à 26 | |
| Schwyz | No cantonal rule | Kantonaler NAV SZ (SRSZ 217.111, vom 20. August 2019) | |
| Ticino | No cantonal rule | CNL personale domestico TI, art. 19 |
Frequently asked questions
Is sickness daily-allowance insurance mandatory across Switzerland?
No. There is no federal duty. What governs is the standard employment contract of the canton where the work happens: 15 cantons require the cover, 5 leave it optional, 6 have no rule. Accident insurance, by contrast, is compulsory everywhere.
We live in one canton and have our holiday home cleaned in another. Which one applies?
The canton of the workplace. The standard employment contract follows where the work is done. The AHV compensation office, by contrast, follows your domicile as the employer — so the two can legitimately differ.
My cleaner only comes three hours a week. Do I still have to?
It depends on the canton. In Zurich and Luzern yes: both contracts name the hourly cleaner expressly. In Thurgau and Schaffhausen the duty falls away below a 50% pensum, in Appenzell Innerrhoden up to 8 hours a week, and in Uri and Jura for auxiliaries. Few hours does not automatically mean no duty.
Who pays the premium?
As a rule, half the household and half the employee; you deduct her share from the wage. You may agree in writing to carry the whole premium. You may not carry less than half.
What does such a policy cost?
For household employees usually around 1 to 3 percent of the gross wage, depending on the waiting period and the insurer. For a cleaner at 6 hours a week on CHF 30 that is a few francs a month — against a risk that can run into the tens of thousands.
Does Clino sell this insurance?
No. We tell you what applies in your canton, write the right clause into the employment contract, and guide you through the registrations. You take out the policy with an insurer of your choice.
Know what applies in your canton
Clino knows the rules for all 26 cantons — wages, public holidays, insurance. Contract, payslip and registrations follow from them automatically, for CHF 19.90 a month.
Register your household help