Federico Di Marco - Working in Switzerland (fededim.github.io)

Federico Di Marco

I’m a senior software engineer, born in Genova, Italy, with a master degree in computer science, in the second half of his forties.

Started using a computer at six years, gone through logo, basic, assembly, C/C++, java and finally to .NET and .NET core. Proficient also in databases, especially Sql Server and reporting. Let’s say I have also some experience on security but mainly in the past, now things have become much more difficult and I do not have too much time to keep me updated, but sometimes I am still kicking in.

Fan of videogames, technologies, motorbikes, travelling and comedy (click my name above for my main page).

Working in Switzerland as a cross border worker living in Italy

Overview

The common question I have been asked recently is how it is working in Switzerland compared to Italy and how much you earn. I can share my limited work experience as software engineer in Ticino (just 2 years), the Italian speaking region (or better canton as it is called here) of Switzerland.

The working week is 42 hours instead of 40 as compared to Italy and probably most other places in Europe (Swiss people unbelievably in the past voted against a referendum to lower them to the "standard" 40 hours); if you work on a standard five-day week you work for 8 hours and 24 minutes a day, your lunch break must be at least 30 minutes, but it can be more even up to 2 hours.

The annual holidays are around 4 weeks (average 22 days against 24 in Italy) (again Swiss people voted incredibly in the past against a referendum to increase them up to 6 weeks), there are no hourly paid leaves like in Italy (in Italy you have 72 hours of paid leaves which you can also take as holidays increasing therefore the annual number of further 9 days), if you need to absent for some hours, you have to agree with your manager, but then you have to compensate all of them during the month by doing overtime. The number of public holidays is 15 in Ticino (but less in all other Swiss cantons, e.g. in Zurich 12), so more than the 12 in Italy; when a public holiday falls on a non-working day (e.g. Sundays) you are not entitled to any compensation as in Italy (so basically you lose it).

The working hours are usually much more flexible than in Italy, you can start working usually at 7.30 in the morning, or even before like at 7.00 or 6.30, so you can get out of office as early as 16.30 (whereas in Italy you usually start working at 8.30 and you have to take a minimum lunch break of 1 hour). Working overtime is luckily not so common (normally you will find little workers after 18 and very few after 19) as compared to Italy (where overtime working in usually unpaid and moreover tried to be fostered psychologically by managers who, when they see you getting out of work at 18, they greet you asking funnily if you are working half a day today :-). Also, part-time working is more popular (for both men and women) unlike in Italy where it is instead very rare (except when working for public institutions).

The work pace is for sure more relaxed, they prefer workers to take all the time they need to deliver a good quality work rather than pushing the deadlines which, however, became "mandatory": if you agree on a delivery date, management expects that this date to be respected most of the times (e.g. missing it is not the norm). On the other hand in Italy everything is agreed today to be delivered for yesterday which is always impossible, so the work is very hectic, you do often (unpaid) overtime to try to meet the deadlines which in the end get postponed and the final quality is not the best one (as a funny note in the old times where the code review activity, originated from the open source software development, was not compulsory as it is nowadays with pull requests, I saw in code comments in a multitude of languages, including Italian dialects like Neapolitan :-).

Usually, you are not given any meal vouchers like in Italy, you have to fully pay for your lunch which is quite expensive in Switzerland (around 15-25 CHF), though most companies provide a lunch break room with a microwaves, fridges, water and tables where you can eat any food you bring yourself from home.

There is no severance pay (in Italy you are entitled to one month salary for every year you worked at a company) and the unemployment benefit is instead paid by the country of residence, Italy, as regulated by European law (at Italian rates).

Since cross border workers do not pay any taxes in Italy, they are not allowed to make any tax deduction for anything like the mortgage, the medical expenses, renovation or energy improvement works in the owned house (with the caveat that if you are married you can let your wife perform your deductions, provided she pays enough taxes).

Since you are not employed under any type of Italian contract in Italy you do not have access to any kind of medical insurance for you, your spouse or your children (in Italy healthcare is both public and private, there are basic insurances refunding the public healthcare fees and others, usually provided to management positions or paid by big companies, covering a fair share (50%-80%) of the much more expensive fees of private healthcare, by the way dental healthcare is only private).

If you want to come to the office by car and the company has a dedicated parking space, you have to pay a fee usually between 50-80 CHF (provided that the company in not in a "big" city centre where it can go up to 350 CHF).

By paying Swiss taxes you are entitled to a Swiss pension proportional to the years you worked there, which is better than Italian one, also for the higher contributions due to higher salary

As particular benefits Swiss businesses reward the long-serving employees providing usually period of sabbatical or increasing money awards for your devotion.

Important note: even if you are hired on a permanent basis, you can get fired with a notice period of 1 month for every year of work, up to a maximum of 6 months.

Wages

And now the most asked question: the wages. I quote here the information I obtained by my research and my experience. The gross wages for cross-borders software engineers in Ticino range from 50000 CHF - 105000 CHF (you can check the Swissdevjobs website which is the only one I found reporting a salary range along the job vacancies and also salary stats); cross borders workers who started working earlier than 17 July 2023 only pay income and pension taxes in Switzerland (around 25% much lower than 35%-40% in Italy), whereas those who started working later, pay the taxes in Switzerland plus the remaining percentage in Italy (so up to 25% in Switzerland and up to 15% in Italy).

If you want to calculate the net salary you can use this website: as "older" cross border worker for the earlier salary ranges you obtain 3400 CHF - 7000 CHF net monthly salary (x 12 months). Historically Swiss franc (CHF) has been lower than euro, 15 years ago it was exchanged for 0.7 (so the previous salaries had to be decreased by around 30% due to their euro conversion), in the last two years the Swiss franc is astonishingly high even more than EURO (now 1 CHF is exchanged on average for 1.05 EUR), which boosts the previous salaries of a 5% when converting to euro.

Earning from 3400 EUR up to 7000 EUR with the cost of living in Italy is bewildering well paid, like an executive working in Italy (keep in mind that the average northern italian salary is more or less 2000€). Cities like Como and Varese, though much smaller than Milan are far more wealthy due to the closeness to the Swiss border and the high number of people working there as cross border workers.

But all this comes with a big price: besides what I wrote earlier, keep in mind that the average commuting time from Italian border to Switzerland is between 1-2 hours for 35 kms one way (either by train or car), so on average you could be spending between 2-3.5 hours every day for commuting in heavy traffic. And moreover, you are only allowed to perform up to 55 days of smart working a year (around 4.5 a month), otherwise you will lose the cross border tax benefits and besides there are many Swiss companies who require your presence in the office every day.

I hope I gave you an clear and unbiased overview of working in Switzerland as an italian cross border worker (you have always to set personal matters aside). As additional notes: