A broken arm costs a cleaner with one employer 354 francs, with four employers up to 5,671

A domestic worker earns the minimum wage of CHF 20.35 an hour and works 22 hours a week. One Sunday she breaks her forearm while cycling and is unable to work for six weeks. The medical costs come to about CHF 6,976.

With one employer she is also insured against leisure accidents through the employer's accident insurance. The insurer pays for treatment without a deductible and, from the third day, a daily allowance of 80% of her wage. She loses 354 francs.

With four employers at 5.5 hours each, she is only insured against work accidents. The health insurer pays for treatment; she bears the deductible and 10% co-pay. There is no daily allowance. If all the jobs have existed for more than three months, each employer must continue to pay three weeks' wages in the first year of service; after that she has nothing. With a deductible of 300 the accident costs her 2,329 francs, with a deductible of 2,500 4,309. If the jobs are less than three months old, wage continuation also falls away: 3,691 or 5,671 francs respectively.

For private households as employers, the SSUV reports about 34,271 full-time equivalents in 2023, with 790 recognized work accidents and 919 recognized leisure accidents. Per 1,000 full-time equivalents that is 23.1 work and 26.8 leisure accidents; across the whole economy 59.6 and 129.5.

The ratio is what is telling, because it does not depend on how full-time equivalents are estimated. Throughout the economy more accidents happen in free time than at work, 2.17 times as many on average, and in the female-dominated sectors of care homes and social work 2.58 and 3.23 times. In private households it is 1.16. Leisure accidents of domestic workers without NBU do not appear in the accident insurance statistics at all: they end up with the health insurer.

There is no official figure. From the cantonal service-voucher schemes and the simplified procedure, Clino estimates that about 85% of registered household jobs are under eight hours, but they account for only 20 to 35% of the hours worked. Two independent methods give about 800 to 1,600 leisure accidents a year among registered domestic workers that fall outside accident insurance. The medical costs of about CHF 2.1 to 4.2 million a year are borne by the health insurers and by the people affected themselves. Undeclared work is not included.

The eight-hour rule is well known; K-Tipp and Beobachter explained it as early as 2008 and 2009. In 2001 the Federal Council replied to a question that hours with different employers were not added together and that further measures were not “necessary or sensible”. In 2013, in its dispatch on the ILO Convention on domestic workers, it wrote that they were insured in the same way as other employees. In its 2021 report on flexible forms of work it called the eight-hour threshold “possibly problematic”, without proposing a change.

On 14 September 2026, National Councillor Samira Marti submitted an interpellation on undeclared work in private households (26.4082); the Federal Council's reply is still pending. We have not found a link between the household accident data, the fact that hours are not added together and the shifting of costs to health insurers in any reply, report or article.

The low leisure-accident rate fits the eight-hour rule, but there are other possible explanations: accidents that go unreported, employers without insurance, or an estimate of full-time equivalents that is wrong. The work-accident rate in households is also low, 2.6 times below the average, and the eight-hour rule does not explain that. Two questions to the SSUV are open: what share of insured people in private households work under eight hours, and why in 2014 only 919 of 1,631 recorded leisure accidents in households were recognized. We will update this page as soon as the answers arrive.

Domestic workers with several small jobs should on no account exclude accident cover from their health insurance, and should keep a possible accident in mind when choosing their deductible. Anyone who reaches eight hours with one employer is also insured in her free time; it is worth bundling hours where possible. What else employed domestic workers are entitled to is set out in our guide for domestic workers.

Employers must insure every domestic worker against work accidents from the first franc, and at eight or more hours a week also against leisure accidents. Employers who fail to do so must expect back payments and surcharges from the substitute fund (Ersatzkasse) after an accident. How the insurance works is explained in our guide to accident insurance for domestic workers. Clino takes employers step by step through registration, accident insurance and payroll.