Hiring a cleaner in Switzerland: prices, tips and AHV rules

Most often it's regular home cleaning: vacuuming and mopping, the kitchen and bathroom, dusting, changing the beds and taking out the rubbish. Often the same cleaner comes every week or every fortnight for a few hours.

Then there are one-off jobs: a spring clean, windows and blinds, cleaning up after building work, or the final clean of a flat before you hand it back to the landlord.

• Regular cleaning, weekly or fortnightly
• Spring clean, windows and blinds
• Ironing and laundry
• End-of-tenancy cleaning when you move out

Private cleaners working for households earn about CHF 29–35 gross per hour, according to quitt. data published by myky (March 2026). The price depends on the region, the size of your home and the tasks.

Minimum wages set a floor. For household work, the federal standard employment contract (NAV Hauswirtschaft) sets a 2026 minimum wage of CHF 20.35 gross per hour (unskilled, excluding holiday pay). It applies from an average of 5 hours per week with the same employer, and not in the canton of Geneva. Some cantons have their own minimum wage (2026, gross per hour): Geneva CHF 24.59, Basel-Stadt CHF 22.20, Jura CHF 21.40, Neuchâtel CHF 21.35, Ticino CHF 20.00–20.50.

End-of-tenancy cleaning by a company with a handover guarantee costs more: renovero lists CHF 800–1'100 for a 3.5-room flat (September 2026).

In your job, say how many rooms your home has, which tasks you want done, how often, and whether you have pets. You can write in English: other users can translate your job into their language with one click.

Before the first visit, agree who provides cleaning products and equipment, how the cleaner gets in (keys or a code) and what happens if a visit is cancelled. Settle the pay too: hourly rate, how and when you pay, and holiday pay. Paid household work is an employment contract under the Swiss Code of Obligations, written or not. Household staff are entitled to at least four weeks of paid holiday; with hourly pay, this is a supplement of 8.33%.

Posting on Workpop is free and there is no commission. When you agree, you both get a digital contract, and you pay the cleaner directly.

AHV is the Swiss old-age and survivors' insurance (AVS in French and Italian); IV and EO stand for disability insurance and income compensation.

In general, a private household that pays someone for household work – such as cleaning, babysitting, gardening, homework help or helping older people – is their employer and must settle AHV/IV/EO contributions from the first franc.

The CHF 2'500 per year and per employer limit does not apply to work in private households. Exception: young people up to 31 December of the year they turn 25, if they earn no more than CHF 750 a year from that household.

Households must insure their staff against accidents with an approved insurer (not Suva). From 8 hours per week with the same employer, non-occupational accidents are covered too.

For small jobs, employers can use the voluntary simplified settlement procedure: one annual settlement with the compensation office, covering AHV/IV/EO/ALV contributions and a 5% withholding tax. With VAvplus, households can also settle the mandatory accident insurance through their compensation office.

Workpop does not do this for you: check your obligations with your cantonal AHV compensation office.

When you move out of a rented flat, you normally hand it back clean. Customary moving dates differ by canton and municipality – for example 31 March and 30 September in the city of Zurich, or 1 April, 1 July and 1 October at noon in the canton of Vaud. Your lease prevails, so check it first.

Cleaning companies sell end-of-tenancy cleaning with a handover guarantee. With a private helper there is no such guarantee unless you agree one: settle beforehand what happens if the landlord finds a problem at the handover.