If you employ people in Switzerland, the rules look deceptively short. The Swiss Code of Obligations (Obligationenrecht, OR) sets out annual leave in just three articles — 329a, 329b, and 329c — and the headline is a single sentence: at least four weeks of paid leave a year, five for workers under 20. The complications start the moment you ask how to pay it, when you can refuse it, and what happens to leave that never gets taken.

This guide walks through what Articles 329a–329c actually require in 2026: the statutory minimum, who qualifies, how holiday pay is calculated, the no-buyout rule, cantonal variations on public holidays, and the pitfalls that catch international employers most often. Every fact below is drawn directly from the Code of Obligations and SECO guidance.

Key Takeaways

The statutory minimum is four weeks (20 working days on a five-day week) of paid annual leave per year under OR Art. 329a.
Workers under the age of 20 are entitled to five weeks.
Most Swiss employers — especially in the private sector — offer five weeks as standard, often through a collective employment agreement (GAV).
Statutory leave must be taken, not bought out during employment. Only contractual leave above the minimum may be paid out, and unused leave is paid on termination.
At least two consecutive weeks of leave must be granted each year.
Public holidays are cantonal, not federal. Each canton sets its own list, and most employers observe it on top of annual leave.

The Statutory Entitlement Under the Code of Obligations

Article 329a of the Code of Obligations sets the floor: every employee is entitled to at least four weeks of paid annual leave per year. For a worker on a standard five-day week, that converts to 20 working days. The same article gives workers under the age of 20 a higher entitlement of five weeks per year.

The Swiss approach is to express leave in weeks rather than days, which makes the conversion to each employee’s actual schedule clean. Four weeks is four weeks regardless of whether the employee works five days or six — what changes is the count of working days inside those four weeks.

Cantonal and Contractual Variations

Switzerland’s federal Code of Obligations sets the minimum, but most employees receive more. Two layers commonly sit on top of OR Art. 329a:

Collective employment agreements (Gesamtarbeitsverträge, or GAV) in many sectors — construction, hospitality, healthcare — set five weeks as the contractual minimum. Where a GAV applies, its terms bind the employer.
Individual employment contracts routinely offer five weeks as a standard benefit, particularly in the private sector, finance, and tech.

There is no federal statutory variation by canton for annual leave itself. Cantonal differences appear instead through the public holiday calendar — each canton publishes its own list — which sits alongside annual leave rather than reducing it.

How Leave Accrues During the Year

Annual leave is pro-rated for partial years of service. The standard convention is one twelfth of the annual entitlement per completed month worked. An employee on four weeks (20 days) who joins on 1 July accrues 10 days by 31 December.

For employees who start partway through the calendar year, the full entitlement applies once they complete a full year of service or roll into the next leave year, whichever the contract sets as the reference period.

Eligibility: Who Qualifies for Annual Leave

All employees under the Code of Obligations are entitled to annual leave. There is no qualifying period in Swiss law — the right to paid leave starts from day one of employment, with the entitlement pro-rated for the portion of the year worked.

This is a meaningful contrast with countries that impose a waiting period (Germany’s six-month Wartezeit, for example). In Switzerland, a new joiner with three months on the books has earned three twelfths of their annual leave by definition. There is no separate waiting period to clear before the entitlement begins to accrue.

For a side-by-side picture across European jurisdictions, see our annual leave comparison for Germany, France, and the Netherlands — Switzerland fits between the German six-day-week framework and the Dutch four-times-weekly-hours rule.

Employer Obligations Under OR Art. 329a–329c

Swiss leave law places several non-negotiable duties on the employer. Treat these as a checklist.

1. Grant the Statutory Minimum

You must grant at least four weeks of paid annual leave per year — five weeks for workers under 20 — every calendar year. Contracts that purport to offer less are void to the extent of the shortfall, and the employee can claim the missing leave.

2. Pay Normal Remuneration During Leave

Holiday pay is the employee’s normal remuneration, including regular allowances, overtime supplements that form part of regular pay, and commission. The principle is that the employee should not be financially worse off for taking their leave. We cover the mechanics in the next section.

3. Allow at Least Two Consecutive Weeks

Article 329c requires that at least two weeks of annual leave be taken consecutively each year. The purpose is recovery — leave broken into single days throughout the year does not deliver the same restorative effect, and Swiss law puts that principle into the statute.

4. Do Not Buy Out Statutory Leave During Employment

This is the rule international employers most often get wrong. Statutory annual leave cannot be paid out in lieu during the employment relationship. The four-week minimum (or five for under-20s) must be taken as actual time off. Only contractual leave above the statutory minimum may be paid out by agreement.

The exception is termination: any unused leave — statutory or contractual — that the employee was unable to take before the end date must be paid out. Where the employee voluntarily forfeited contractual leave above the minimum, that portion is treated as forfeited rather than payable.

5. Do Not Allow the Employee to Waive the Minimum

Connected to the no-buyout rule: an employee cannot validly waive the statutory minimum. Even with written agreement, four weeks of paid leave (or five for under-20s) cannot be contracted away. Any waiver only operates against contractual leave above the floor.

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Holiday Pay: What “Normal Remuneration” Includes

Holiday pay under OR Art. 329a is based on the employee’s normal remuneration, including regular supplements. In practice that means:

Base salary continues during the leave period for salaried employees on stable pay.
Regular allowances — shift premia, on-call payments, language allowances, fixed bonuses — are included.
Commission and variable pay are included where they form a regular part of the employee’s earnings, typically averaged over a reference period.
Irregular overtime outside contractual working hours is excluded.

For salaried employees with no variable component, holiday pay is functionally the same as continuing to pay normal salary while they are away. The complexity arrives when employees earn meaningful commission, shift premia, or sales bonuses that need to be averaged in.

The 8.33% and 10% Holiday Supplement

Some Swiss employers — particularly for short-term, hourly, or temporary workers — pay a holiday supplement on top of hourly pay rather than continuing salary during leave. The convention is:

Approximately 8.33% for four weeks of annual leave (4 ÷ 48 working weeks).
Approximately 10.64% for five weeks (5 ÷ 47 working weeks); 10% is a common rounded figure in contracts.

This approach is permitted only where the supplement is clearly identified on the payslip and the employee actually takes the leave as time off. Bundling holiday pay invisibly into hourly pay, without ever granting the leave, breaches the no-buyout rule.

Carry-Over of Unused Leave

The Code of Obligations does not impose a hard expiry on unused annual leave the way some European jurisdictions do. In practice:

Unused leave can be carried over into the following year by agreement, or where the employee was unable to take it because of illness, maternity, or other compelling reasons.
The carry-over period is typically limited by contract or company policy, often to one further year.
Long-term illness suspends the practical opportunity to take leave, and untaken leave continues to accrue with limits applied by case law.

This gives Swiss employers some flexibility, but it also means that without an active policy, leave balances can quietly grow on the books. For the management approach, see our guide to carrying over annual leave — the operational principles transfer well even though the underlying statute differs.

Common Pitfalls for International Employers

If your team is used to UK, US, or Australian leave conventions, the Swiss framework will catch you off guard in predictable ways. Watch for these.

Pitfall 1: Paying Out Statutory Leave During Employment

This is the single most common breach. An employee asks to “cash out” some of their annual leave, you agree, and the cash hits payroll. Under OR Art. 329a, the four-week minimum (or five for under-20s) cannot be bought out during employment. Only leave above the statutory minimum can be paid out, and even then only by genuine agreement.

Pitfall 2: Excluding Variable Pay From Holiday Pay

If you continue base salary during leave but exclude commission, shift premia, or regular bonuses, the holiday pay falls below the employee’s “normal remuneration” under Art. 329a. The fix is to average regular variable components into the holiday rate.

Pitfall 3: Not Granting Two Consecutive Weeks

Splitting all leave into single days across the year is not compliant. Article 329c requires at least two consecutive weeks each year. Build it into the leave-approval workflow, and challenge requests that would leave an employee without an unbroken two-week block by year end.

Pitfall 4: Forgetting the Five-Week Entitlement for Under-20s

Workers under the age of 20 receive five weeks, not four. The entitlement applies until the calendar year in which they turn 20. Missing this for younger workers — apprentices, summer staff, recent school-leavers — is a clear statutory breach.

Pitfall 5: Treating Cantonal Public Holidays as Optional

Switzerland has no federal public holiday list other than 1 August (Swiss National Day). All other public holidays are set at the cantonal level, and a holiday in Zurich may not be observed in Geneva. Employers operating across cantons need to apply the relevant cantonal calendar to each employee’s place of work, on top of annual leave.

Frequently Asked Questions

How many days of annual leave are employees entitled to in Switzerland?

The statutory minimum is four weeks (20 working days on a five-day week) of paid annual leave per year under OR Art. 329a. Workers under the age of 20 are entitled to five weeks. Most Swiss employers offer five weeks as standard, particularly in the private sector.

Can annual leave be paid out instead of taken in Switzerland?

The statutory minimum of four weeks cannot be paid out during employment — it must be taken as actual leave. Only leave above the statutory minimum can be paid out by agreement. On termination, any unused leave is paid out as part of the final settlement.

Does Switzerland have a qualifying period before annual leave starts to accrue?

No. The right to paid annual leave begins from day one of employment, with the entitlement pro-rated for partial years of service at one twelfth per completed month worked.

Is there a federal public holiday list in Switzerland?

No. The only nationwide federal public holiday is 1 August (Swiss National Day). All other public holidays are set at the cantonal level, and observed holidays differ between, for example, Zurich, Geneva, and Bern. Most employers observe the cantonal holidays in addition to annual leave.

What is the minimum consecutive period of leave employers must grant?

Article 329c of the Code of Obligations requires that at least two weeks of annual leave be taken consecutively each year, to give the employee a meaningful recovery period.

How is holiday pay calculated in Switzerland?

Holiday pay is the employee’s normal remuneration, including regular allowances, overtime supplements that form part of regular pay, and commission. Some employers — particularly for short-term or hourly staff — apply a holiday supplement of approximately 8.33% (for four weeks) or about 10% (for five weeks) on top of hourly pay, provided the supplement is clearly identified and the leave is actually taken.

Practical Compliance Checklist

If you operate in Switzerland, your leave management system needs to handle the following at minimum:

Track at least four weeks of paid annual leave per employee per year, and five weeks for workers under 20.
Pro-rate the entitlement at one twelfth per completed month for partial years.
Enforce at least two consecutive weeks of leave per year through the approval workflow.
Apply the relevant cantonal public holiday calendar to each employee’s place of work, on top of annual leave.
Calculate holiday pay using normal remuneration, including regular allowances and variable pay.
Block buyouts of statutory leave during employment, and pay out any unused leave on termination.
Where any GAV applies in your sector, audit the contractual minimum against the GAV (often five weeks, sometimes higher).

How Leave Balance Helps Swiss Employers Stay Compliant

Managing OR Art. 329a–329c correctly across a Swiss workforce — alongside German, French, or UK teams — is the kind of compliance work that breaks generic spreadsheets. Leave Balance is built to handle it.

Country-specific entitlement rules for Switzerland, including the under-20 five-week rule and the two-consecutive-weeks requirement
Cantonal public holiday calendars applied per employee location
Holiday pay calculation that incorporates regular variable components
Multi-country support — run Swiss, German, French, and Italian entities on a single dashboard
Audit trail for any leave waivers or buyouts above the statutory minimum

For a wider European view, see our guides to managing leave across Europe and annual leave entitlement in Germany for a country immediately to Switzerland’s north with a very different framework.

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