CHF 11.65 an hour: less than half the Geneva minimum wage

From CHF 1,200 to CHF 11.65: the calculation

To compare fairly, we do not use the CHF 1,200 net paid in cash (that would be CHF 6.15 an hour) but everything the employer must declare for AHV according to the FDFA: the gross cash wage and the value of board and lodging. Both figures come from the FDFA contribution table of January 2026. The tax exemption is not included, because its value depends on who it is compared with; it would narrow the gap by a few percentage points.

The comparison: same hours, two floors

A domestic worker in Geneva who is not employed by a diplomatic household is entitled in 2026 to at least CHF 4,795 a month for the same 45-hour week. If she lives with the employer and receives meals, the employer may deduct CHF 990; that leaves her CHF 3,805 gross in cash, 2.97 times the CHF 1,282 under the ODPr. The difference from the full ODPr package is CHF 2,523 a month, or around CHF 30,277 a year.

The ODPr employer, however, also pays the health insurance premium that a Geneva domestic worker covers out of her own wage. Adding the average Geneva adult premium of CHF 586 a month (FOPH 2026, an estimate, not an actual premium) raises the package to CHF 2,858, or CHF 14.66 an hour. That is 60 % of the Geneva minimum wage: even on this most generous reading, less than two thirds.

15 years without a change

The amount is written directly into the text of the ordinance, with no indexation clause. The FDFA’s own 2022 information sheet says «as at 1 July 2011», and its January 2026 table still gives CHF 1,200. The federal standard contract, by contrast, has been raised, and the Geneva minimum wage is adjusted for inflation.

The question of the amount has been raised in Parliament. In interpellation 22.4561 (Binder-Keller), Parliament asked why these domestic workers receive CHF 1,200 when others earn more for the same work. The Federal Council pointed to the tax-free net wage and to the insurance, board and lodging paid by the employer, and stated that the ordinance had proven itself in practice (in the original French: «l’ODPr a fait ses preuves»). The reply contained no comparison of figures. Since then, no motion in the federal Parliament has taken up the minimum wage.

What nobody knows: how many there are

The last public figure is 16 years old: in October 2010, 533 private domestic workers were registered in Geneva and Bern (German Institute for Human Rights, 2011, based on figures from Protocol). In 2023 the Swiss Mission in Geneva told Al Jazeera that 102 visas had been issued to domestic workers from abroad between 2019 and 2022; that is an inflow, and it covers visas only. Neither the FDFA’s «La Genève internationale en chiffres» nor the Geneva statistics office reports the group separately. Geneva’s Bureau de l’amiable compositeur, the mediation office for employment disputes in international Geneva, has handled just under 2,000 cases since 1995, across all categories of staff. Nobody can say today whether the story concerns a few hundred people or more. The FDFA issues the legitimation cards and could give the number; it has not published it.

No more immunity in employment disputes

On 25 September 2025 the Federal Supreme Court ruled (4A_170/2024) that employing a domestic worker is a commercial activity within the meaning of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations. A diplomat therefore cannot invoke immunity in a wage dispute with his or her domestic worker. The ruling concerns the enforcement of claims, not the level of the minimum wage.

CHF 1,200 net for a 45-hour week: the amount has stayed the same since 2011, while every other household minimum wage has gone up.