AHV, pensions, and what actually comes off a Swiss salary

The rates, and the one that no longer exists

AHV, IV and EO together come to 10.6 percent of salary, split evenly between you and your employer. Unemployment insurance adds 2.2 percent, also split. So the combined deduction is 12.8 percent up to CHF 148,200, and 10.6 percent above that, of which you pay half.

AHV itself is uncapped on salary. Only unemployment insurance has a ceiling.

The solidarity contribution was abolished on 1 January 2023. English payroll and HR content still routinely states a 1 percent levy above the ceiling. There is none.

One detail rarely mentioned: the unemployment insurance ceiling applies per employment relationship, so somebody with two jobs has two ceilings. That changes the arithmetic considerably for portfolio workers.

If you are self-employed, the number you have been told is wrong

The self-employed pay a maximum of 10.0 percent, not 10.6, on a declining scale down to 5.371 percent, with a minimum contribution of CHF 530 a year (CHF 541 from 2027). Quoting 10.6 for the self-employed is a common error.

What the pension actually pays

The minimum full single pension is CHF 1,260 a month and the maximum is CHF 2,520. A married couple's combined pensions are capped at CHF 3,780. The maximum is reached at a relevant average annual income of CHF 90,720 and above. From 1 January 2027 these become CHF 1,280 and CHF 2,560 a month, CHF 3,840 for a couple, and CHF 92,160 (Federal Council, 2 October 2026).

A full pension requires the same number of contribution years as others in your birth cohort, which is not always 44 — the official worked example uses a woman with 43 years on the full scale. One missing year normally costs at least a forty-fourth of the pension. Contributions paid between 18 and 20 can fill later gaps, but only where the missing years can no longer be claimed under the five-year limitation.

If you arrive mid-career, this is the sentence that matters: the gap years before you got here are gaps, and they are counted.

Retirement age, and the two dates that get misreported

The AHV 21 reform took effect on 1 January 2024, but the age step-up only began on 1 January 2025. Both dates are commonly reported as the other.

For women, the reference age rises by three months a year: the 1961 cohort reached 64 and 3 months in 2025, the 1962 cohort reaches 64 and 6 months in 2026, the 1963 cohort 64 and 9 months in 2027, and from 2028 the 1964 cohort and everyone after reaches 65.

The thirteenth pension, and who does not get it

The genuinely new thing is the thirteenth AHV pension, first paid at the end of December 2026. It goes to old-age pensions only — not to survivors', disability or child pensions — and equals one twelfth of the old-age pension actually received during that calendar year, so somebody who drew a pension for only part of the year gets proportionally less.

An editorial tell worth knowing

Leaflet 8.01 no longer exists. A large amount of English content, and several AI-generated summaries, still cite it. All three language versions return a 404. The live document is leaflet 10.03. Citing a dead leaflet number is a strong signal that a source was copied rather than checked.