Hiring a cleaner in Switzerland: what it costs, where to register and what applies from the first franc

🧮 What does a cleaner cost in Switzerland? The calculator for your canton

Registering is cheaper than you think. For 4 hours a week at CHF 30, Zurich adds about CHF 463 a year to the wage, at most CHF 503 with admin costs and the cantonal fund, so at most CHF 42 a month. Per hour worked she costs you CHF 34.91 to 35.12 instead of CHF 30. The accident premium is not included; it depends on the insurer. In Jura it is about CHF 571. The difference is the family allowance rate: 1.025% in Zurich, 2.75% in Jura, the highest in Switzerland. The rates of all 26 cantons are in the ConvivaPlus Contribution Comparison, compiled by ConvivaPlus from the FSIO table.

Enter hours, hourly wage and canton. The calculator shows gross wage with holiday pay, your contributions, the compensation office's admin costs (at most 5% of contributions), your cost per year, month and hour worked, and what your helper is paid out. Plus three answers: does it fit the simplified procedure? Is off-duty accident cover needed? Are you meeting the minimum wage?

1️⃣ AHV from the first franc: the allowance does not apply here

A side job is AHV-free up to CHF 2,500 a year; a cleaner is not. In a private household every wage is subject to contributions from the first franc, even for one hour a week. It is the rule most households do not know.

AHV/IV/EO is charged at 5.3% and ALV at 1.1%, split equally between you and your helper. Family allowances, paid by you alone (except in Valais, where she pays a small share too), and the office's admin costs come on top.

You deduct her share from the wage, as its own line on the payslip.

🧒 Two exceptions: up to age 25 and from retirement age

There are two exceptions, and the first is designed for babysitters: employees up to 31 December of the year they turn 25, earning at most CHF 750 a year from you, pay no contributions. If they ask, you settle anyway.

For employees of retirement age an allowance of CHF 16,800 a year applies. Contributions are due only above that.

📨 Where to register: your canton's compensation office, within a month

One office for everything: the AHV compensation office where your household is takes the registration and, under the simplified procedure, collects the tax as well, passing it on to the tax authority (DBG Art. 37a). You deal with neither the tax office nor the municipality.

The deadline is yours, not your helper's: for the simplified procedure you register within one month of the start of employment. If your helper has no AHV number yet, report her to the office within 30 days of starting work.

🧾 Simplified procedure: one bill a year, report by 30 January

The limit of the simplified procedure is no coincidence: the law ties it to the occupational pension. No single wage may exceed CHF 22,680, the amount from which a pension fund becomes mandatory (BGSA Art. 2, BVG Art. 7). Stay inside and you never need a pension fund for your cleaner. And her wage no longer goes on her tax return: the withholding tax settles income tax at federal level and in every canton (DBG Art. 37a, StHG Art. 11 para. 4).

Instead of monthly settlements with three offices, you report wages once a year, by 30 January. The compensation office sends one bill for AHV, ALV, family allowances and withholding tax, payable within 30 days.

A second limit applies to the payroll of all your employees: CHF 60,480 a year, twice the maximum AHV old-age pension. For most households with one cleaner, that is enough.

📏 CHF 22,680 limit: up to 21 hours at minimum wage

At the minimum wage of CHF 20.35 with holiday pay, at most 21 hours a week fit the simplified procedure. Pay more and you are out sooner: at CHF 30 an hour, from about 14 hours.

Above the limit you settle under the ordinary procedure, and from CHF 22,680 annual wage an occupational pension is required too. If you already settle under the ordinary procedure, you can only switch at the start of a year; for a new hire you register within a month.

💸 Withholding tax for cleaners: 5% for Swiss citizens too

Withholding tax is only for foreigners? Not under the simplified procedure: 5% is deducted from every employee, Swiss citizens included. 0.5% goes to the Confederation, 4.5% to the canton and municipality.

In return, income tax on this wage is settled (DBG Art. 37a, StHG Art. 11 para. 4). The compensation office issues her a certificate of the deduction. Under the ordinary procedure there is a salary certificate instead, and withholding tax is generally deducted only from foreign employees without a settlement permit.

🩹 Accident insurance: from day one

Without a policy your helper is still insured, but the bill comes to you: if an accident happens, the substitute fund steps in and charges you the premiums for at most 5 years, double for inexcusable failure (UVG Art. 95).

So you insure her against occupational accidents from day one, even for one hour a week. From 8 hours, off-duty accident cover is added. Suva does not cover domestic work; you need a private insurer.

⚖️ Undeclared work: what happens if you don't register

«Nobody checks private households» is wrong: at the latest after an accident or a dismissal it comes out. An employer who joins no compensation office and does not settle wages on time commits an offence: a monetary penalty of up to 180 daily penalty units (AHVG Art. 87 para. 3).

Contributions are claimed retroactively, up to 5 years after the end of the calendar year (AHVG Art. 16). And your helper will be missing those years as a contribution gap in her AHV pension.