Zurich sets 23.90 franc minimum wage from 1 January 2027, with transition to end 2027

The new timetable

The Zurich city council announced on Thursday, 12 November 2026, that its municipal minimum wage ordinance will enter into force on 1 January 2027. Employers in the city must pay at least 23.90 francs an hour, which the NZZ estimates at about 4,360 francs a month. The council moved faster because a national law that would bar municipal wage rules is expected to take effect after a vote at the end of February 2027, and cities wanting a minimum wage had to act before 28 February. Winterthur faces the same deadline. The detailed implementing provisions, which set how the rules apply to individual firms, will follow in the course of the spring.

Transition and hardship exemptions

Businesses get until 31 December 2027 to adjust their pay. Firms that can prove financial difficulty may ask the city council for an additional two years. Reports differ on when that extension starts: one version says from the second quarter of 2027, while another ties it to the issuing of the implementing provisions, which are due by the second quarter of 2027 at the latest. Applications must be justified. The rule mainly affects cleaning companies, restaurants and hairdressing salons, and a large majority of the employees who stand to gain are women. The council said that because appeals will have no suspensive effect, the rule will bring legal certainty for everyone.

Background: the 2023 vote and the court ruling

In June 2023 nearly 70 percent of Zurich voters backed the 'Ein Lohn zum Leben' initiative, which set the 23.90 franc minimum. Winterthur decided on a 23-franc minimum at the same time. Business associations appealed, arguing that municipalities had no power to set a minimum wage at all. The Federal Supreme Court settled the question in June 2026, three years after the popular vote, ruling that cities may introduce a minimum wage as a measure against poverty.

The federal threat and the referendum

In late June 2026 the bourgeois parties in the federal parliament approved a new law against the opposition of the Federal Council. The law overrides cantonal and municipal minimum wage rules, and in sectors where social partners have negotiated a collective labour agreement, those rules would not apply. The SP, the Greens and the unions took up the referendum, so the national law goes to a popular vote at the end of February 2027. Once it takes effect, it would bar such wage rules, which is why the cities moved before 28 February. The sequence of decisions is shown below.

Reactions and open questions

Social department head Céline Widmer (SP) framed the decision as a step against working poverty. She said:

“The appeal has already delayed implementation of the popular vote by several years, a very long time for employees on the lowest wages.”

Widmer added that the city was taking an important step in the fight against working poverty.

“With this, the City of Zurich is taking an important step in the fight against working poverty.”

The SP estimates that around 17,000 low-wage workers will receive a pay rise and accused the trade association of blocking the popular vote for years. The Greens welcomed the decision but demanded effective controls and warned that exemptions for young workers and interns could erode protection. The cantonal trade union federation welcomed the start but criticised the controls and enforcement arrangements.