Unemployment insurance (AC)

If you are in paid employment, you do not have to worry about your AC contributions as it is your employer’s responsibility to pay them in to the Compensation Fund.  The overall contribution rate is 2.2% on an annual salary of up to CHF 148,200. This contribution is shared equally between you and your employer who will contribute his/her half and deduct the other half from your salary.  The obligation to contribute terminates when you reach retirement age (64 years for women and 65 for men) and cease all gainful employment.  

As a rule, insured income is the average salary during the six-month period prior to the reference period for compensation, and at most CHF 12,350 per month. The allowance is 80% of insured income if you have maintenance obligations (dependent children, for example), and 70% in other cases.  Within the reference period for compensation, and depending on the case, you are entitled to between 400 and 520 daily allowances after a general waiting period of five days.  However, if you leave your job voluntarily you might not be paid any compensation. This information is only a rough guide so we would recommend that you get in touch with an unemployment compensation office.

If you lose your job, that is if you can prove loss of salary for at least two consecutive working days (two-fifths of a working week), you are entitled to claim unemployment benefits.  You should go to your regional employment office, or ORP, and they will tell you what to do.