Switzerland’s gender pay gap narrowed again in 2024. Women earned 15.7% less than men on average, down from 16.2% in 2022, according to the Federal Statistical Office (FSO). The unexplained difference narrowed to 6.5%.
The trend is longstanding. Across the economy, including both the private and public sectors, the gap stood at 19.0% in 2018 and 18.0% in 2020. The figures are based on gross monthly wages standardised to a full-time workload.
Part of the difference reflects observable characteristics of men and women in the labour market, including education, tenure and seniority. Men and women are not distributed evenly across occupations, industries or management levels so the comparison is somewhat questionable. Pay gaps tend to widen with seniority. Once these factors are stripped out the gap falls to 6.5%.
In the private sector, the gap fell from 17.5% in 2022 to 17.2% in 2024. But differences between industries remain large. The gap was 7.9% in hotels and restaurants and 16.9% in retail. It reached 17.2% in machinery manufacturing and 30.6% in financial and insurance activities. The public sector shows the same broad trend. Across the federal government, cantons and municipalities, the average gap fell to 12.8% in 2024, from 13.8% in 2022, 15.1% in 2020 and 18.1% in 2018.
What the statistics do not explain
Differences in education, tenure, occupation and industry do not account for the whole gap. Even after these factors are taken into account, a difference remains between the pay of women and men with otherwise comparable characteristics. This unexplained gap stood at 6.5% across the economy in 2024, down from 7.0% in 2022. In cash terms, it amounted to an average of CHF 640 a month, compared with CHF 657 two years earlier.
The unexplained gap may include discrimination, but it can also reflect factors that the data do not observe, or measure only imperfectly. These include individual productivity, precise job responsibilities, bargaining behaviour, language skills, further training, management experience and the specific demands of a role. Statistical assumptions and model design may also affect the residual. The unexplained component should therefore not be interpreted as a direct measure of discrimination.
Company size matters. In firms with fewer than 20 employees, the unexplained gap was 8.6% in 2024, slightly above the 8.4% recorded in 2022. In firms with at least 1,000 employees, it was much lower, at 5.8%, down from 6.8%.
Hierarchy matters too. Among employees with no management responsibilities, the unexplained gap was 6.1%, compared with 6.6% in 2022. Among senior managers, it reached 12.4%, up from 10.6% two years earlier.
The gap also varies by education. Among employees with a degree from a university of applied sciences or teacher-training college, the unexplained gap was 3.8%, the lowest of any education group. Among those who had completed vocational training, it was 6.6%.
Unexplained pay differences also increase with age. Among employees under 30, women earned 2.2% less on average than comparable men, down from 2.4% in 2022. Among those over 50, the gap was 8.3%, compared with 8.5% two years earlier.
Differences are sharper still by marital status. Among unmarried employees, the unexplained gap was 2.7%. Among married employees, it was 8.1%.
The wider gaps among older and married workers suggest that motherhood may play a role. Time out of the labour force, part-time work and slower promotion can all weigh on women’s earnings over the course of their careers. Studies comparing mothers with childless women often find sizeable wage penalties associated with motherhood—one study found a 3.7% motherhood gap.
It is important, however, to distinguish discrimination from differences in experience and job choices. Paying a woman less simply because she is a mother is illegal in Switzerland. Paying less because she has accumulated less work experience, moved into a lower-paid but more “mother-friendly” job, or changed employer after a career break is not necessarily discriminatory. Such career interruptions can therefore widen pay gaps even in the absence of unlawful treatment.
Given the likely persistence of the motherhood penalty, broad top-down pay comparisons are unlikely ever to show no pay gap at all. But they can still serve a useful purpose by keeping attention focused on the part of the difference that may reflect gender discrimination.
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