13th salary in Switzerland: how it is paid and taxed

A 13th salary is not extra money: it is your annual salary paid in 13 instalments instead of 12, and you get one if your contract, collective agreement (GAV) or staff rules provide for it; Swiss law has no general rule that every employee gets one. About three in four employees got one in 2024, according to the Federal Statistical Office. On CHF 78,000 a year paid as 13 × CHF 6,000, AHV and unemployment insurance deductions at the rates valid in 2026 leave CHF 5,616 in most months and CHF 11,232 in the payout month, before pension fund, accident insurance and tax. Budget on the CHF 5,616 and give the payout-month extra a job before it arrives.

Every rule below links to the law or the official text behind it. Where the 13th salary is taxed at source, the payout month's tax deduction is higher, and that is expected, not a payroll mistake. This page is general information, not tax or legal advice.

Is a 13th salary mandatory in Switzerland?

No general rule makes it mandatory. The Code of Obligations (OR) says the employer pays the wage that is "verabredet oder üblich oder durch Normalarbeitsvertrag oder Gesamtarbeitsvertrag bestimmt" (agreed, customary, or set by a standard or collective employment contract; Art. 322 para. 1). The words "13th salary" (13. Monatslohn) do not appear in the articles on wages. So a 13th salary comes from your contract, your GAV or your employer's staff rules.

Once it is agreed, it is part of your wage, and the employer owes it like the other twelve payments. That is different from a Gratifikation (a discretionary special payment or bonus). For a Gratifikation, Art. 322d para. 1 OR gives a claim only "wenn es verabredet ist" (if it has been agreed). Read your contract for the exact words: "13th monthly salary" or "annual salary payable in 13 instalments" describes wage; "bonus at the employer's discretion" describes something else.

How common is it? The Federal Statistical Office's wage survey (LSE) for 2024 found that 75.9% of employees received a 13th salary. On the employer side, 46.4% of firms paid one to almost all their staff and 27.9% paid none. So about one employee in four does not get one, and a job offer without it is not unusual.

A 13th salary also does not mean a higher salary. CHF 78,000 paid in 12 instalments is CHF 6,500 gross a month; paid in 13, it is CHF 6,000. The yearly total and the yearly AHV and ALV deductions are the same. When you compare offers, compare the annual figure.

When is the 13th salary paid?

When your contract says. The default rule in the OR is that wage is paid at the end of each month unless other dates are agreed, customary or set by a standard or collective employment contract (Art. 323 para. 1). For the 13th salary, contracts usually fix one of three patterns:

It is often paid in November or December, but no law fixes the month; your contract or staff rules name it.

What is deducted from the 13th salary?

The same social contributions as from any other wage. The AHV leaflet counts monthly wages and Gratifikationen as part of the AHV wage (massgebender Lohn) (leaflet 2.01, para. 10 a and c), and the employer deducts the employee share from it.

In a payout month, the ALV ceiling matters. Payroll uses a provisional monthly ceiling of CHF 12,350 (1/12 of CHF 148,200), and the employer reconciles the year at the end. If a large payout month pushes your pay above CHF 12,350, the ALV on that month can look different from the rest of the year until the year-end reconciliation. In the example below, the payout month is CHF 12,000, under the ceiling, so the full 1.1% applies.

How is the 13th salary taxed at source?

If you are taxed at source (Quellensteuer, often B permit holders), the 13th salary is taxed in the month it is paid. The rule for the monthly model is based on the Federal Tax Administration's (ESTV) circular no. 45 on tax at source (Kreisschreiben Nr. 45), which the canton of Thurgau's current tax practice text cites. That text says: "Der 13. Monatslohn ist grundsätzlich im Monat der Auszahlung an der Quelle zu besteuern" (the 13th salary is in principle taxed at source in the month it is paid out; Steuerpraxis StP 112 no. 2, version 2026-09).

The Thurgau text sets out how the payout affects the rate:

The employer may not spread a yearly 13th across the months to smooth the rate if the contract does not pay it monthly: the Thurgau text says it is "nicht zulässig, durch monatliche Zuweisung des 13. Monatslohns eine Glättung des Steuersatzes zu erwirken" (not permitted to smooth the tax rate by allocating the 13th salary monthly).

What this means on your payslip: in the payout month, the source-tax line is higher in francs because the pay is higher, and it is often higher as a percentage too, because a higher monthly income falls into a higher rate. It is not an error. We do not show a franc amount here because the rate depends on your canton's tariff and your personal situation; your canton's tax-at-source page publishes the tariffs.

Some cantons use an annual model instead of the monthly model, and there the calculation works differently. Check your canton's tax-at-source page. If you are taxed at source with a higher income and file a subsequent ordinary assessment (NOV), the final tax is settled after the year ends. Our guide to setting money aside for Swiss tax covers that case, and how much to set aside under ordinary taxation, where nothing is deducted from your pay.

Do you get the 13th salary if you leave mid-year?

Check your contract or GAV first. For a Gratifikation, Art. 322d para. 2 OR says that if the job ends before the occasion for the payment, you get a pro-rata share only if that was agreed. For a 13th salary, many contracts say it is paid pro rata on joining or leaving, for example in the final payslip; look for that clause before you hand in your notice.

If you think a 13th salary you are owed has not been paid, you can ask your canton's conciliation authority or labour court, or your union, about the next step. This page does not give legal advice on a dispute.

Worked example: CHF 78,000 in 13 payments

Assumptions:

• Gross annual salary CHF 78,000, paid as 13 × CHF 6,000.
• The 13th is paid in full in one month (December in this example; your month may differ).
• Rates valid in 2026: AHV/IV/EO 5.3% (leaflet 2.01, status 1 January 2026) and ALV 1.1% (leaflet 2.08, status 1 January 2025, the current edition).
• Not included: pension fund (BVG), non-occupational accident insurance (NBU) and income tax. Your real payslip will be lower.

Arithmetic: 6,000 × 5.3% = 318; 6,000 × 1.1% = 66; 6,000 − 318 − 66 = 5,616. Year: 11 × 5,616 + 11,232 = 73,008.

Paid in 12 instalments of CHF 6,500 instead, the yearly gross, AHV and ALV deductions and amount paid out (CHF 73,008) are the same; only the timing changes.

What this means for your budget

Budget on the CHF 5,616 that arrives in most months, not on a monthly average. Then the payout month brings CHF 5,616 more than usual (CHF 11,232 − CHF 5,616), so decide what that money is for before it lands, or it disappears into an ordinary month's spending.

Bills that come once a year are good candidates:

• Tax: if you are taxed the ordinary way, nothing is deducted from your pay and the bill comes later. Our tax set-aside guide shows how to estimate it.
• The household media fee: our Serafe guide covers the yearly bill.
• Holidays, insurance excesses or a savings goal.

If you are taxed at source, the payout month's source tax is higher, so the extra that reaches your account is smaller than the CHF 5,616 in the table. Plan with the figure on your own payslip.

As a check, CHF 73,008 divided by 12 is CHF 6,084 a month. If your plan spends CHF 6,084 every month, you are spending the 13th in advance, and the months before the payout will run short.

To see where these lines fit in a full monthly budget, read Is CHF 100k a good salary in Switzerland?. In our Swiss Budget Planner you can rename categories, so you can add a "13th salary" income line for the payout month and the yearly bills it covers. Any spreadsheet with the same lines does the job.

Sources and last checked

Rules and rates checked on 16 October 2026 (German pages with an English gloss). The AHV and ALV rates are the rates valid in 2026 (the ALV leaflet's current edition is dated 1 January 2025; there is no 2026 edition); we recheck both leaflets, and any 2027 editions, on the day this page goes live.

• Code of Obligations (OR, SR 220), Art. 322, 322d and 323, status 1 October 2026.
• Federal Statistical Office (BFS), Swiss Earnings Structure Survey 2024, press release, PDF (LSE 2024), published 25 November 2025, p. 3.
• AHV/IV information centre, leaflet 2.01 on AHV/IV/EO contributions, status 1 January 2026, para. 10.
• AHV/IV information centre, leaflet 2.08 on unemployment insurance contributions, status 1 January 2025 (current edition; no 2026 edition).
• Federal Tax Administration (ESTV), circular no. 45 "Quellenbesteuerung des Erwerbseinkommens von Arbeitnehmern" (cited by the Thurgau text below; the ESTV page could not be opened on 16 October 2026).
• Canton of Thurgau, Steuerpraxis StP 112 no. 2, "Berechnung der Quellensteuer nach dem Monatsmodell", version 2026-09.