Employment contract for your cleaner: 2026 template with minimum wage, holidays and accident cover

📄 Word + PDF template: the contract with the 2026 figures

A handshake makes the contract valid, not complete. If the job is open-ended or lasts longer than a month, you must give your helper 5 points in writing no later than 1 month after she starts: both names, the start date, her role, the wage with any supplements and the weekly hours (Art. 330b CO). The signed template takes care of that.

Twelve clauses, one page of work, including names, start, hours, wage, holidays, accidents, illness, notice. The 2026 minimum wages are already in it, for the federal level, Geneva, Neuchâtel, Ticino and the City of Lucerne. What you fill in is in square brackets.

Download the Word file to fill it in on screen, or the PDF to print. Both of you sign and keep a copy.

Employment contract for household staff
between
Employer: [first name, last name, street, postcode, town]
and
Employee: [first name, last name, street, postcode, town, date of birth, AHV number]
1. Start and duration
Employment begins on [date] and is open-ended. The probation period is [1] month.
2. Place of work and duties
Place of work: [address of the household]. Duties: [e.g. cleaning, laundry, ironing, shopping].
3. Working hours
[Number] hours a week, usually on [day(s)] from [time] to [time].
4. Wage
Gross hourly wage: CHF [amount], category: [unskilled / four years' experience or EBA / EFZ].
Minimum wages 2026 (federal standard contract for domestic work, from an average of 5 hours a week): CHF 20.35 unskilled · CHF 22.30 with four years of household experience or an EBA certificate · CHF 24.55 with an EFZ diploma. Canton of Geneva: its own standard contract from the first hour (from CHF 24.59). Neuchâtel (CHF 21.35) and the City of Lucerne (CHF 22.75): minimum wage from the first hour. Ticino under 5 hours: CHF 20.00. The higher amount always applies.
5. Holidays
[4 / 5] weeks of paid holiday a year (at least 5 weeks up to the age of 20, Art. 329a CO). With an hourly wage, holiday pay is paid as a supplement of 8.33% (4 weeks) or 10.64% (5 weeks) and shown separately on every payslip. In Ticino a further 3.6% is added for public holidays.
6. Social insurance and deductions
AHV/IV/EO 5.3% and ALV 1.1% each for employer and employee, from the first franc. Settled through the compensation office [name] under the [ordinary / simplified] procedure. Under the simplified procedure, 5% withholding tax is deducted.
7. Accident insurance
Insured under the Accident Insurance Act (UVG) with [insurer, policy no.]. The employer pays the premium for occupational accidents. From 8 hours a week the employee is also insured against non-occupational accidents; this premium may be deducted from the wage.
8. Pay during illness
Continued pay under Art. 324a CO: 3 weeks in the first year of service, then for an appropriately longer period. Daily sickness allowance insurance: [yes, with / no].
9. Pregnancy and maternity
If unable to work during pregnancy, continued pay under Art. 324a CO; after the birth, maternity allowance under the Income Compensation Act (EO).
10. Termination
During the probation period: 7 days. After that: 1 month in the 1st year of service, 2 months from the 2nd to the 9th year, 3 months from the 10th year, always to the end of a month (Art. 335b and 335c CO). Notice is given in writing.
11. Supplementary provisions
The standard contract for household staff of the canton of [canton], the federal standard contract for domestic work (minimum wages) and the Code of Obligations also apply.
12. Signatures
Place, date: [place, date]
Employer: ____________________
Employee: ____________________

💶 Cleaner minimum wage: only from 5 hours a week, in Geneva from the first

In Geneva a cleaner earns at least CHF 24.59 from the very first hour. Elsewhere in Switzerland the federal minimum wage only applies from an average of 5 hours a week for the same employer. Four hours a week in Zurich, Bern or Zug: the federal standard contract, and with it its minimum wage, does not apply. Your canton's standard contract for household staff may still apply.

From 5 hours, the standard contract sets three levels: CHF 20.35 unskilled, CHF 22.30 with four years of household experience or an EBA certificate, CHF 24.55 with an EFZ diploma. Holiday pay always comes on top. At 5 hours a week on the lowest rate that is about CHF 4,884 in base wage a year, plus CHF 407 for holidays.

Geneva is 21% above the federal level: the canton has its own standard contract (CTT-EDom), and the federal one does not apply there.

🗺️ Minimum wage by canton: Basel, Geneva, Neuchâtel and Ticino do it differently

From 5 hours a week, a cleaner in Basel-Stadt does not get Basel's minimum wage of CHF 22.20 but the lower federal one: Basel's law excludes everyone covered by a standard contract with minimum wages (§ 2 para. 2 lit. h MiLoG). In Jura, too, the standard-contract wage takes precedence over the cantonal CHF 21.40. Below that, the question is open in both cantons.

In Neuchâtel, by contrast, the cantonal minimum wage of CHF 21.35 applies to household work from the first hour: the law covers everyone who normally works in the canton (LEmpl Art. 32b). Only wages without AHV contributions are exempt, which in a household means only young people up to 25 earning at most CHF 750 a year.

In Ticino the cantonal minimum wage also applies to household work. In 2026 it is CHF 20.00 for private households, below the federal rate: from 5 hours the federal contract counts, below that the Ticino rate, plus 3.6% for public holidays on an hourly wage. And the City of Lucerne has had a municipal minimum wage of CHF 22.75 since 2026, from the first hour.

The ConvivaPlus Minimum Wage Matrix below shows the minimum for every canton, below and from five hours a week. ConvivaPlus compiled it from the federal standard contract and cantonal laws, checking every row against the legal text.

🏖️ Holiday pay: «included» gets expensive

A clause saying «holidays are included in the hourly wage» saves nothing; it costs. If holiday pay is not shown separately, the employer generally remains liable to pay it again (Art. 329d para. 2 CO, BGE 129 III 493). At 5 hours a week on the minimum wage that is about CHF 407 a year, backdated.

The rule: 8.33% supplement for 4 weeks' holiday, 10.64% for 5 weeks, stated in the contract and as its own line on every payslip. Up to the age of 20, employees are entitled to 5 weeks (Art. 329a CO).

🩹 Accident insurance: the 8-hour threshold

At 7.5 hours a week your cleaner is insured through you only against accidents at work. At 8 hours she is also covered when she falls off her bike on a Sunday. Half an hour decides who pays (UVV Art. 13). Below that, the commute at least counts as an occupational accident (para. 2).

Occupational accident cover is mandatory from the first day, even for one hour a week, and you pay the premium. The premium for off-duty accidents may be deducted from her wage.

🚑 Not with Suva: who insures your cleaner

Accident insurance makes most people think of Suva. It does not cover domestic work. You insure your helper with a private insurer that offers UVG policies for private households.

Ask your household contents or liability insurer whether it offers a UVG policy for household staff. The policy number goes into clause 7 of the contract.

🤒 Sick pay: at most 3 weeks in the first year

If your helper falls ill in the first 3 months of an open-ended contract, you owe her no wage. The right only arises once the job has lasted more than 3 months or was agreed for more than 3 months (Art. 324a para. 1 CO). The Federal Supreme Court confirmed this for open-ended contracts with a short notice period: sick pay starts on the first day of the fourth month (BGE 131 III 623). A fixed-term contract of more than 3 months applies from day one.

After that the risk is smaller than many fear: in the first year of service you pay at most 3 weeks' wages, which for 4 hours at CHF 30 comes to about CHF 390 including holiday pay, across the whole year. From the second year the period gets longer with seniority (para. 2).

This calculation assumes no daily sickness allowance insurance. If your canton's standard contract for household staff requires one, this calculation does not apply: you then pay your share of the premium, and the insurer covers lost wages under its terms. The contract has a field for the policy.

✂️ Notice period: never under a month after probation

Two hours a week, yet the same notice period as a full-time job: the law staggers notice by years of service, not by workload. In the first month, the probation period, either side gives 7 days' notice (Art. 335b CO). After that: 1 month in the first year, 2 months from the second to the ninth, 3 months from the tenth (Art. 335c CO). If she falls ill or has an accident, after probation you may not give notice for a while, 30 days in the first year; notice given during this protected period is void (Art. 336c CO).

After probation, every one of these periods ends at the end of a month, so a single day can cost a full month's wages: if she receives your notice on 31 March in her first year, the job ends on 30 April; if it reaches her on 1 April, not until 31 May. Give notice in writing so the date is clear, for example with one of the notice templates.

🛂 Work permit: what to check before day one

Employing a cleaner who is not allowed to work in Switzerland is a criminal offence, even through carelessness: negligence carries a fine of up to CHF 20,000, intent a custodial sentence of up to one year or a monetary penalty (Art. 117 FNIA). That is why the law requires you to look at her permit or ask the authorities before she starts (Art. 91 FNIA).

An EU citizen needs something from you before day one as well. Up to 3 months per calendar year she can work without a permit, but not without notification: you report her online to the State Secretariat for Migration, no later than the day before she starts. Beyond that she needs a permit.

Swiss citizens and C permit holders need none of this. For everyone else, check with the cantonal migration office that their permit allows this job.

Under the ordinary procedure you generally deduct withholding tax from the wages of employees without a C settlement permit. Under the simplified procedure the deduction applies to everyone, Swiss citizens included.