Share of low wages

Relevance/Result

This indicator provides information on low wages and enables a comparison of the percentage of employees affected in the different population groups by migration status. This enables any inequalities on the labour market to be detected.

In 2019, 16% of employees held a low paid job. The rate is 13% among the population without a migration background; this group is the least affected by low wages. In comparison with this group, the population with a migration background has a rate that is 1.6 times higher (21%). With 17% of employees holding a low paid job, the second or subsequent generations has an intermediate rate.

Occupation

Although the share of low wages varies depending on occupation, differences can also be seen when the population is broken down by migration status.

The population with a migration background from the first generation shows a higher percentage of low wages than other migration statuses among all occupations, with the exception of intellectual and scientific professions, intermediate occupations, service and sales workers and craft and related trade workers, where the second or subsequent generations shows higher rates.

Major region

The share of low wages differs depending on the major region. The relative differences between people with different migration statuses are, however, comparable. The ratio between the population without a migration background and that with a migration background is between 1: 1.3 (Northwest Switzerland) and 1.7 (Espace Mittelland).

Definitions

A job is considered "low wage" when the wages, calculated on the basis of a full-time equivalent of 40 hours per week, are less than two-thirds of the median standardised gross earnings. The scale of the phenomenon of low wages is measured here from the point of view of the population of employees who hold a low wage job. It should be borne in mind that among employees affected by low wages, those who are paid low wages only because they work part-time are not included here.

You can access the indicators in one of the following ways

All indicators

Some 68 indicators describe the current situation and changes in the integration of the population with a migration background and/or of foreign nationals in Switzerland in eleven areas of life in our society.

Key indicators

34 key indicators provide an overview of the progress made on the journey towards integration and the state of integration of the population with a migration background. If this information is lacking, the population is shown by nationality, and where this variable is available, the country of birth.