Hiring domestic help in Switzerland: What you need to know

You want to hire a domestic helper to help you with cleaning, cooking, babysitting or other household tasks? Then you need to follow some legal and administrative steps. In Switzerland, you are considered an employer and therefore have to fulfill certain obligations. In this article you will learn what you need to do if you want to hire a domestic helper.

Take out accident insurance

First of all, you must register your domestic helper with a licensed accident insurer. This is mandatory for all domestic workers, regardless of the workload. The accident insurance covers the costs for occupational accidents and, if the workload exceeds eight hours per week, also for non-occupational accidents. The premium for occupational accident insurance is paid by the employer. The premium for non-occupational accident insurance can be deducted from the employee's salary.

Pay old-age and survivors' insurance and unemployment insurance contributions

Next, you must register your domestic help with the cantonal compensation office in your canton of residence. This is necessary in order to pay the old-age and survivors' insurance and unemployment insurance contributions for your domestic help. The old-age and survivors' insurance contributions amount to 10.6% and the unemployment insurance contributions to 2.2% of the gross salary and are paid half by the employer and half by the employee. The compensation office will provide you with a registration form on which you can also indicate the accident insurer.

Paying family allowances

You should also check whether you have to register your domestic help with the family compensation fund. This is the case if she or her spouse does not receive family allowances. Depending on the canton, family allowances amount to between 200 and 300 francs per child and month and are paid by the employer. The family compensation fund will also provide you with a registration form.

Issue a pay slip

After the domestic helper is employed, you must issue a pay slip every month. The pay slip must show the gross salary, the deductions for old-age and survivors' insurance, accident insurance and any withholding tax, as well as the net salary. You can use a template for this. Don't forget that at the end of the year you must also provide the wage statement for the tax return.

Conclusion

As you can see, it is not easy to hire and insure a domestic helper correctly. If you want to save yourself the administrative effort, we at Findea AG can also help you.

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