How much salary should I be paid? Understanding your market worth!

It's incredibly difficult to know what your market worth is, here are a few tips to help understand what salary you should expect in Switzerland

This is one of the most common questions that we get asked and quite often when we ask what salary people look for they reply “Market rate”, which can be pretty frustrating because there is no market rate! Every company and every position is different, as is every candidate and personal situation.

That being said, it’s important to make sure you present yourself at the right level, not to under or oversell your profile. Here’s how:

1. Google it, but don’t just take the answer that pops up first, or the one most suited to your desires! Look at several different sources and compare. If there is a site claiming to have a range and average for a certain profession look closely at how many people responded to that survey… a survey of 20 people is not an accurate reflection of the job market! At the bottom of this article there are a couple links.
2. Salary will vary significantly between different locations mainly due to the cost of living. For example salaries in Ticino are a lot lower than Zurich or Geneva
3. Salary will vary significantly due to industry sector. Pharma and Banking are well known as being two of the biggest employers and best paying sectors, but these alter the averages significantly. A small industrial company will not offer the same salaries as a multi-billion dollar bank.
4. Speak to the recruiter responsible for the position. We know what the range is and we make sure expectations are aligned from the start, so all sides don’t waste any time.
5. If there is a range for the position, make an honest assessment of your skill set and pitch yourself accordingly. Job titles do not track between organisations, so a “Senior” is a very subjective term.

It’s important to remember that you are not the only candidate applying so your salary expectations will be compared to others applying. For top of the range, the client expectations are higher. In general, lowering your expectations by 5 or 10k can make the difference in securing the position/an interview.

Importantly, in Switzerland, there is very little negotiation around salary, companies make a Yes/No decision based upon what you tell them you expect. So don’t expect them to come back and ask “we like your profile, but we would only consider xxx” they will just say “no”. Use a recruiter’s inside knowledge of the client to the best of your advantage here.

Any negotiation needs to be approached extremely cautiously, using the right words, with the right person, at the right time. That’s why we encourage our candidates to always rely on our experience and insider knowledge of the best way to approach these sensitive topics, as opposed to trying to do it yourself.

Every situation is different, so feel free to reach out and have a chat!

Here are a couple of interesting links:

Official Swiss Government statistics: https://www.bfs.admin.ch/bfs/e...

Lohnrechner can sometimes be quite accurate: https://www.lohnrechner.ch/

Jobs.ch has quite a large number of respondants so is one of the more accurate measures: https://www.jobs.ch/en/salary/start/