AI test: 6 of 7 cost calculations for a cleaner or nanny leave out holiday pay

The question was: “What does a cleaner in Zurich, 4 hours a week at CHF 30 an hour, cost me per month in total, including social contributions?” (asked in German). Clino calculates CHF 610.86: gross wage CHF 519.90 plus 8.33% holiday pay (CHF 43.31), plus employer contributions of CHF 44.66 and the administrative costs of the compensation fund. All four assistants gave a monthly total of CHF 564 to 590 as their result, without holiday pay. ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini mentioned it as a possibility; Gemini wrote that it is “usually already included in practice”. Copilot did not mention it.

For the nanny in Lausanne, 20 hours a week at CHF 25, Claude and Gemini led with about CHF 2,400; Clino calculates CHF 2,583. ChatGPT also calculated without holidays at first, but then recommended budgeting CHF 2,600. That is the only one of the 7 answers with the correct amount. In each case Clino scored the figure the answer leads with or recommends as its result; anyone who reads on will find holiday pay mentioned as a variant in several answers.

Why it matters: an hourly wage only includes holiday pay if this is shown separately in the employment contract and on every payslip (Federal Supreme Court, BGE 129 III 493). Anyone who agrees on CHF 30 an hour and shows nothing separately owes the holidays on top. At 4 hours a week, the AI budget is short by up to CHF 47 a month, around CHF 560 a year.

In Zurich, Bern and Geneva the cantonal standard employment contracts for domestic workers require sickness benefit insurance that pays 80% of the wage for up to 720 days. A standard employment contract applies automatically unless the employment contract states otherwise in writing. In Zurich and Bern a family without insurance has to pay the benefits itself.

The paid versions of ChatGPT and Claude named the insurance obligation or the liability without insurance in all 6 answers. Gemini, in the free version, wrote that for Bern there is “no obligation” in the standard employment contract, and gave “a maximum of 3 weeks” of sick pay for Zurich. Copilot, also free, said three weeks for Zurich and did not commit itself for Bern. For Geneva, Gemini was right.

The difference is expensive: in Zurich and Bern a family without insurance and without a written exclusion is liable for up to 720 days at 80%, not for three weeks. One caveat: our reference answer for Zurich at first named only the three weeks from Article 11 of the Zurich standard employment contract. After checking the whole contract, we added the insurance obligation before the evaluation; the three weeks alone count as partly correct.

For the rules, an AI is a useful start. For the amount that goes into the employment contract and is paid every month, you need a calculation that includes holiday pay and the rates of your own compensation fund. The Clino wage calculator does both, free of charge and for all 26 cantons.

Since October, Clino has also made its calculators available to AI assistants. Anyone who connects ChatGPT, Claude or another assistant to the Clino server for AI assistants gives it a calculation instead of an estimate: for the Zurich question the server returns CHF 610.86 including holiday pay, with a breakdown. In the test this server was deliberately not connected.