Working hours and holidays in Switzerland: what the law allows, what people actually do.

Forty-five hours is the ceiling. Forty is the reality.

The Labour Act (Arbeitsgesetz) sets a maximum, a daily frame and rest rules for employees. It does not say how long your week is — your contract or the collective agreement of your branch does that.

Which group am I in? The 45-hour limit covers industrial companies, office staff, technical staff and other salaried employees, and retail staff in large shops. The 50-hour limit covers everyone else — most of construction, crafts, hospitality, transport and personal services. Collective agreements may set a lower normal week but never raise the ceiling. [1] [5]

The daily frame

• 6–20 h
  is day work
  Evening work until 23 h needs no permit but must be agreed with staff. The whole day, breaks included, may not span more than 14 hours. [2]
• 23–6 h
  night work is banned
  So is Sunday work. Both need a permit from the canton or SECO, and night work pays +25 % or 10 % time credit. [2]
• 15 · 30 · 60
  minutes of break
  Above 5½, 7 and 9 hours of work in a day. The break sits in the middle; a break you may not leave the workplace for counts as work. [2]
• 11 h
  of rest between two working days
  Once a week it may drop to 8 hours if the two-week average stays at 11. Plus one free half-day a week when you work more than five days. [2]

Four weeks by law. Five in practice.

Same for every branch: the Code of Obligations applies to all employment contracts, whatever the industry. Collective agreements add to it — the construction trades give 5 weeks until 20 and from 50, 6 weeks from 60; hospitality 5 weeks; many banks and public employers 5 to 6 weeks by age. [8]

Six rules people get wrong

• Two weeks in one pieceAt least two of your four weeks must be taken together, in the year they are earned. CO Art. 329c.
• The employer sets the datesBut must take your wishes into account "as far as compatible with the business" — and tell you early enough to plan.
• No cash insteadHolidays may not be paid out while you are employed. Only at the end of the contract are unused days paid. CO Art. 329d.
• Ill on holiday? The clock stopsDays of illness or accident serious enough to stop you recovering are given back — with a doctor’s certificate.
• Part-time: the same weeksA 60 % job also has four weeks; they are simply counted in your working days, not in calendar days.
• Public holidays are extraThey do not come out of your four weeks — but one that falls on a Saturday or Sunday is simply gone.

One is federal. The other twenty-four depend on your canton.

What the law gives you when a child arrives.

Federal minimums, paid through the EO insurance everybody contributes to. Employers and cantons often add more.

• 14 weeks
  maternity leave
  98 daily allowances at 80 % of pay, capped at CHF 220 a day (CHF 6 600 a month). Working is forbidden for 8 weeks after the birth; you may stay away until week 16. [11]
• 2 weeks
  for the other parent
  14 daily allowances at 80 %, maximum CHF 3 080 in total, taken as a block or as single days within six months of the birth. [10]
• 16 weeks
  of protection from dismissal after the birth
  Plus the whole pregnancy. A notice given in that time is void; one given before is paused. [12]
• 30 · 60 · 90
  minutes of paid breastfeeding time
  Per day in the child’s first year, depending on whether you work up to 4, up to 7 or more than 7 hours. [16]
• 2 weeks
  adoption leave
  For a child under four, shared between the parents, within a year of the adoption; 80 % of pay. [10]
• 14 weeks
  to care for a seriously ill or injured child
  Shared between both parents, within 18 months, paid through the EO insurance. [10]
• 3 days
  per case for a sick child or relative
  Up to 10 days a year, paid, for any family member or partner. CO Art. 329h. [10]
• CHF 215 · 268
  a month per child, at least
  Child allowance until 16, education allowance until 25 — paid through the employer, or through your family compensation fund if you are self-employed. Cantons may pay more. [13]

The rules stop at the door of the self-employed.

Everything above protects employees. Whether it protects you depends on one question: who signs your payslip?

• The Labour Act protects employees — not you, if you are self-employedNo maximum week, no rest rule, no holiday entitlement, no break rule. A self-employed gardener may legally work 70 hours and take no holiday. The flip side: nobody pays those holidays either. [4]
• The owner of a GmbH or AG is an employee of the companyThe Act applies — with one exception: people in a senior managerial role with real decision-making power are exempt from the working-hours rules (Art. 3 lit. d). They still have four weeks of holiday under the Code of Obligations. [4]
• A small company has no small-company exemptionThe 45/50-hour cap, breaks, rest time and the ban on night and Sunday work apply from the first employee. So does the duty to record working time. [1]
• Recording hours: simplified under 50 staffCompanies with fewer than 50 employees may agree in writing with staff who plan their own time that only the daily total is recorded. A complete waiver needs a collective agreement and a salary above CHF 120 000. Records are kept five years. [15]
• Not covered by the Act at allFamily businesses employing only spouse, parents, children and siblings; farms and market gardens; private households — a nanny or cleaner employed by a family falls under the cantonal standard contract instead, with its own minimum rules. [4]
• Maternity pay for the self-employed: yes, if you pay AHVSelf-employed mothers get the same 14 weeks at 80 % of their declared income, and self-employed parents receive child allowances through their family compensation fund. [11]

For Werkara taskers: a self-employed tasker chooses her own hours and days, including Sundays and evenings, because the client is not an employer. A tasker who is employed by a company — a cleaning firm, say — is covered by the Labour Act in full.

Short answers.

• Side jobs in Switzerland: what is allowed→
• Wages in Switzerland: median, average, minimum — and what is left of them→
• Student side jobs→

Where the rules come from.

1. [1]
   Swiss Confederation — Labour Act (ArG), Art. 9 — maximum weekly working time 45 / 50 hours. www.fedlex.admin.ch
2. [2]
   Swiss Confederation — Labour Act (ArG), Art. 10–20 — day, evening and night work, breaks, daily rest, Sunday work. www.fedlex.admin.ch
3. [3]
   Swiss Confederation — Labour Act (ArG), Art. 12–13 — overtime beyond the maximum (Überzeit): 2 h a day, 170 / 140 h a year, +25 %. www.fedlex.admin.ch
4. [4]
   Swiss Confederation — Labour Act (ArG), Art. 2–3 — who the Act does not apply to. www.fedlex.admin.ch
5. [5]
   State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) — Das Arbeitsgesetz — die wichtigsten Arbeits- und Ruhezeitbestimmungen in Kürze (leaflet). www.seco.admin.ch
6. [6]
   Federal Statistical Office (BFS) — Arbeitszeit im Jahr 2025 (AVOL) — 8.114 billion hours, 40 h 03 actual week, 5.2 weeks of holiday, 8.2 sick days. www.bj.admin.ch
7. [7]
   Federal Statistical Office (BFS) — Ferien — holiday weeks by age. www.bfs.admin.ch
8. [8]
   Swiss Confederation — Code of Obligations, Art. 329a–329d — holidays: minimum, timing, no cash payment. www.fedlex.admin.ch
9. [9]
   Federal Office of Justice (BJ) — Gesetzliche Feiertage und Tage, die in der Schweiz wie Feiertage behandelt werden — list by canton. www.bj.admin.ch
10. [10]
    Federal Social Insurance Office (BSV) — Urlaube für Eltern und Urlaub zur Betreuung von Angehörigen — maternity, paternity, adoption, care leave. www.bsv.admin.ch
11. [11]
    Federal Social Insurance Office (BSV) — Mutterschaftsentschädigung — 80 %, maximum CHF 220 a day, 98 daily allowances. www.bsv.admin.ch
12. [12]
    Swiss Confederation — Code of Obligations, Art. 336c — no dismissal during pregnancy and 16 weeks after birth. www.fedlex.admin.ch
13. [13]
    Federal Social Insurance Office (BSV) — Familienzulagen — Leistungen und Voraussetzungen: at least CHF 215 / 268 a month. www.bsv.admin.ch
14. [14]
    Cantonal family allowances 2026 (overview) — Familienzulagen 2026 — Ansätze aller 26 Kantone. baunex.ch
15. [15]
    State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) — ArGV 1, Art. 73a and 73b — waiver of and simplified working-time recording. www.seco.admin.ch
16. [16]
    Swiss Confederation — ArGV 1, Art. 60 — paid breastfeeding time (30 / 60 / 90 minutes). www.fedlex.admin.ch

Checked against the sources above on 4 October 2026. Public-holiday dates are for 2026; cantonal lists follow the Federal Office of Justice and may differ at communal level. The “last updated” date at the top changes whenever a rule or figure is refreshed. This page is general information, not legal advice.