Holiday pay is not a general permission to replace time off with cash. Employees retain their right to paid holidays. A supplement paid with an hourly wage is an exception for qualifying irregular work and must be transparently agreed and shown separately.

Key takeaways Four, five or six weeks correspond mathematically to 8.33%, 10.64% or 13.04% of wages excluding the supplement. The statutory minimum is generally four weeks, and five for employees under 20; extra leave at age 50 depends on the contract or collective agreement. Public-holiday pay is separate and is not universally an additional fixed percentage.

Calculation

Formula: holiday weeks / (52 − holiday weeks) × 100. These percentages describe a calculation, not permission to pay out holiday entitlement in every hourly employment arrangement.

Illustrative payroll calculation

Assume a base wage of CHF 4'800.00, agreed holiday pay of CHF 399.84 and an independently agreed public-holiday supplement of CHF 187.20. Gross: CHF 5'387.04. The employee AHV/IV/EO share at 5.3% is CHF 285.51; unemployment insurance at 1.1% is CHF 59.26. That leaves CHF 5'042.27 before any other applicable deductions. This is a limited illustration, not a complete payslip.

For freelancers

A sole proprietor has no employer-funded holiday entitlement. Include non-billable time in your rate calculation. Magic Heidi helps with invoices and expenses; it does not provide payroll administration.

For consistent invoice details and records, use the Swiss invoice template or bookkeeping software.

CO / OR, Art. 329a–329d.