Economy Wage talks
Travail.Suisse calls for a general 2% wage increase
The union opens next year's wage negotiations demanding an average 2% pay rise, while employers consider a 1% increase plausible. The two sides also disagree on how much health insurance premiums weigh on households.
Wage talks for next year look set to be tense. The trade union Travail.Suisse has opened the round by calling for a general wage increase of 2% for all employees. The Swiss Employers' Association (USI) considers an average increase of 1% plausible instead.
The 2% demand is a national average and varies by sector, according to Travail.Suisse. In healthcare, for example, the Syna union is asking for an increase of 5 to 6%. It justifies the demand by pointing to weak wage growth in recent years, which it says has caused difficulties in the sector.
Two readings of the same trend
Travail.Suisse bases its demand on the stagnation of real wages over the past decade. According to the union, this stagnation has worsened the financial situation of families.
The employers' association reads the data differently. It considers the union's demand disconnected from economic reality, marked by weak growth and geopolitical uncertainty.
The two sides agree on one point: rising health insurance premiums weigh heavily on family budgets. From this shared observation, though, they draw opposite conclusions. For the union, it is an argument for higher wages, able to absorb an expense that families cannot control on their own. For employers, it remains just one factor among several, within an economic context that, in their view, would not allow for wide margins.
The gap between the two demands, one percentage point, measures the distance between those looking at family budgets and those looking at company accounts. Travail.Suisse points to the decade of stagnant real wages to call for catch-up. The employers' association points instead to the uncertainties of the international context to keep expectations in check.
In the coming months, negotiations will move sector by sector. That is where it will become clear how far these two readings, far apart on paper, can converge around the table, and how much the actual willingness to negotiate and each side's bargaining power will shape the outcome.
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