In Switzerland, public holidays do not follow a single calendar that applies across the whole country. Unlike states where public holidays are set at national level, Switzerland leaves the cantons wide authority to decide which days count as public holidays on their territory.
For employers, that means checking which rules apply to each employee depending on the canton they work in. A day recognized as a public holiday in one canton may not be one in the next, with consequences for scheduling, salary calculation and payroll.
Whether the day is paid therefore depends on its legal status: some public holidays are treated as Sundays and enjoy specific protection, while others exist only because a cantonal provision, a contract or a collective agreement says so. Understanding how the system works is what keeps employers compliant and keeps errors out of payroll.
How does the public holiday system work in Switzerland?
Public holidays in Switzerland rest on a division of powers between the Confederation and the cantons. Federal law sets a general framework, but the cantons have considerable latitude to recognize their own public holidays.
For companies with employees in several regions, this deserves close attention. The rules that apply can vary with the employee's place of work.
The Swiss National Day is the only federal public holiday
At federal level, exactly one day is officially treated as a Sunday: Swiss National Day on 1 August.
That status means 1 August benefits from the specific rules the Labor Act sets for days treated as Sundays: work is prohibited in principle, unless Sunday work has been authorized, and the working time lost does not have to be made up by the employee.
Other festivals known across the country, such as Christmas or Ascension Day, are by contrast not automatically public holidays valid throughout Switzerland. Their recognition depends on the cantonal provisions that apply.
The distinction matters for employers: the fact that a festival is widely celebrated nationwide does not mean it carries the same legal effects in every canton.
The cantons set their own public holidays
The cantons may treat up to eight further public holidays per year as Sundays.
These days can therefore vary a great deal from one canton to another, depending on local, historical or religious tradition. An employee working in one canton may get public holidays that do not apply to a colleague based in another.
To establish which public holidays apply within a company, you need to look at:
- the canton in which the employee carries out their activity;
- any applicable collective labor agreements;
- the provisions set out in the employment contract or the company's internal rules.
This calls for careful management in companies with teams spread across several cantons. Public holidays have to be configured correctly in payroll tools so that absences and pay are handled properly.
Holiday pay and social security contributions
When a legal public holiday treated as a Sunday falls on a day the employee would normally have worked, the working time lost does not have to be made up. Whether the day itself is paid is a separate question, and the answer depends on the day's status. The next section sets it out.
What is settled is the payroll treatment of any allowance actually paid for a public holiday: it counts as determining salary for social insurance purposes. It therefore has to be included when calculating contributions, in particular for:
- old-age and survivors' insurance (AVS);
- invalidity insurance (AI);
- loss of earnings allowances (APG).
For the employer, that means handling a public holiday is not just a matter of logging an absence in the schedule. It also has to be carried correctly through the payroll process and the social security declarations.
What treating a day as a Sunday actually changes
Treating a legal public holiday as a Sunday (art. 20a LTr) produces two main effects for the employer.
First, work on that day is prohibited in principle: employing staff on a public holiday treated as a Sunday requires authorization for Sunday work, granted by the cantonal authority or by SECO depending on whether the need is temporary or regular.
Second, the working time lost because of the public holiday does not have to be compensated: the employee is not required to make up those hours.
Employers therefore have to build these rules into their scheduling, particularly where authorization for Sunday work is needed to keep operating that day.
Are public holidays always paid in Switzerland?
Whether a public holiday is paid depends chiefly on its legal status and on the employee's situation. Not all public holidays in Switzerland produce the same effects on salary. Employers have to identify the days that apply in their canton and check the rules that cover their staff.
Some legally recognized public holidays are treated as Sundays and enjoy specific protection. Others are days off that exist only because of a cantonal provision, a contract or a collective agreement.
In practice, 1 August is the only public holiday whose payment is mandatory throughout Switzerland. The obligation comes from art. 110 para. 3 of the Federal Constitution and art. 1 para. 3 of the Ordinance on the National Day: where 1 August falls on a day that would normally have been worked, the employer pays the full salary for the day off, whatever the employee's method of remuneration, including for someone paid by the hour.
For every other public holiday, including the eight cantonal days treated as Sundays, federal law imposes no obligation to pay. The distinction is decisive in practice. An employee on a monthly salary loses nothing when a public holiday falls, because the monthly salary already covers that day. An employee paid by the hour, on the other hand, is entitled to nothing for a cantonal public holiday, unless a collective agreement, their employment contract or established company practice provides otherwise.
Public holidays that are not officially recognized
Not every holiday celebrated in Switzerland counts as a legal public holiday within the meaning of the Labor Act.
One canton may recognize certain dates on the basis of local or religious tradition while another gives them no such status. A company, likewise, may grant additional days off in its internal rules or under a collective labor agreement.
Employers therefore need to distinguish between:
- public holidays treated as Sundays under cantonal or federal rules;
- days off granted voluntarily by the company;
- absences tied to particular events or to religious festivals.
Where a day is not recognized as a legal public holiday in the canton concerned, how it is handled generally depends on the arrangements in force within the company. It may be treated as a paid day off, for instance, but that obligation does not follow automatically from the federal Labor Act.
The distinction matters particularly for companies employing people across several cantons. The same date can be a paid day off for one employee and an ordinary working day for a colleague based in another region.
What happens if an employee works on a public holiday?
Some activities require a continuous presence, including on days that are normally off. This is often the case in sectors with permanent operating needs.
Where an employee works on a legal public holiday treated as a Sunday, the employer has to follow specific rules on rest and on pay.
The right to compensatory rest
An employee who works on a legal public holiday is entitled to compensatory rest, the length of which depends on the hours worked: five hours or less is compensated with time off, while more than five hours gives a right to at least 24 consecutive hours of rest, granted during the preceding or following week and falling on a normal working day.
The rule offsets the fact that the employee worked on a day that normally carries specific protection.
Compensatory rest has to be scheduled in line with the rules on working time in Switzerland. For the employer, that means tracking the hours worked and the compensation owed closely enough to avoid errors in working time management.
This obligation comes on top of the other rules on Sunday work and on days treated as Sundays. Its purpose is to balance the company's operating needs against the protection of its staff.
The 50 percent salary supplement
Where work performed on a legal public holiday or a Sunday is temporary in nature, the employee is also entitled to a salary supplement of 50 percent.
This applies in particular where Sunday or public holiday work does not exceed six Sundays and legal public holidays per calendar year.
The supplement is calculated on the basis of:
- the employee's hourly wage;
- or the average wage where the work is paid by the piece.
Certain elements of remuneration are excluded from that calculation base, in particular:
- child allowances;
- household allowances;
- residence allowances.
Employers therefore have to keep several elements apart when an employee works a public holiday:
- the normal salary for the hours worked;
- the 50 percent supplement where the conditions are met;
- the compensatory rest the employee may be entitled to.
Handling these correctly is what keeps payroll compliant and avoids later adjustments.
How do you manage public holidays in Swiss payroll?
Public holidays are a significant administrative burden for employers. Differences between cantons, the rules on work performed on those days and the treatment of allowances in payroll all call for close tracking.
To get it right, a company needs to identify the rules that apply to each employee and to run a reliable absence management process.
Identifying the public holidays that apply to each employee
The first step is working out which public holidays concern which employee.
That check depends chiefly on:
- the canton in which the employee works;
- their usual place of activity;
- any applicable collective agreements.
This can get complicated for companies with several sites or with employees spread across different cantons. Misidentifying a public holiday leads straight to an error in absence or salary calculation.
Carrying public holidays correctly into salary calculation
Public holidays have to be properly reflected in payroll processing.
Employers need to:
- record absences linked to public holidays;
- apply any allowances provided for;
- include those amounts in the social security declarations where they form part of determining salary.
Because allowances paid for public holidays are subject to AVS, AI and APG contributions, they have to be treated as salary elements in line with the applicable rules.
Precise handling keeps payslips compliant and limits administrative corrections.
Unofficial religious festivals
Switzerland also has a specific rule for religious festivals that the canton concerned does not recognize as public holidays.
An employee may ask to stop work in order to observe a religious festival. They have to tell their employer at least three days in advance.
That option does not automatically mean the absence is paid as a legal public holiday would be. What applies depends on the company's internal rules and on the contractual provisions.
Employers therefore need to tell an absence for a religious festival apart from an officially recognized public holiday, because the consequences for salary and for working time management can differ.
Simplify public holiday management with Numeriq Payroll
Managing public holidays, much like paid vacation in Switzerland, gets complicated fast. Between cantonal differences, the specific rules on working a public holiday and the treatment of allowances in payroll, reliable processes are what keep you within your obligations.
For companies employing people across several cantons, or looking to outsource their payroll, tracking public holidays is part of running compliant payroll. Getting a public holiday, a compensation or an allowance wrong leads to administrative corrections and complicates the social security declarations.
At Numeriq Payroll, we support Swiss companies, foreign companies employing staff in Switzerland and SMEs with their payroll and administrative obligations. Our team helps you build the rules on public holidays correctly into your pay processes.
What we cover includes:
- factoring cantonal specifics into payroll management;
- handling absences linked to public holidays;
- managing allowances and the elements subject to social security contributions;
- tracking specific situations such as work performed on a public holiday;
- preparing social security declarations in line with Swiss requirements.
By entrusting your payroll management in Switzerland to Numeriq Payroll, you get specialist support to simplify your administration while keeping a clear view of your salary data.
Our multilingual team based in Switzerland already supports more than 100 companies and 1,000 contractors with their payroll and administrative needs. With over 50 years of combined experience, support available 24/7 and a payroll accuracy rate of 99.9 percent, we put our expertise behind reliable, transparent handling of employer obligations.
That lets you concentrate on your business while working with a partner who keeps you in line with Swiss rules on payroll, social insurance and staff management.
