Setting Up a Company

Types of Companies and Capital (Max/Min)	Number of Partners/Shareholders and Liability
Private Limited Company. Minimum CHF 20,000.	No minimum Liability is limited up to the registered capital and not to the amount contributed.
Public Limited Company. Minimum CHF 100,000.	No minimum Liability is limited to the amount contributed.
General partnership. No minimum capital.	Minimum 2 partners. Liability is unlimited.
Limited partnership. No minimum capital.	Two types of partners: active partners and sleeping partners. Liability of active partners is unlimited. Liability of sleeping partners is limited to the amount contributed.

Source: Doing Business.

Business Setup Procedures: Consult Doing Business Website, to know about procedures to start a Business in Switzerland.
Central Business Names Index
Swiss Commercial Gazette (SHAB)

Working Conditions

Legal Weekly Duration: 45 hours for technicians and white collar employees.

50 hours for other employees (e.g. building industry and agriculture).
Retirement Age: 65 years
Working Contracts: Legal clauses regulate employment contracts and to a lesser degree collective agreements and individual negotiations.Under Swiss law, foreign citizens need a residence permit and a work permit to get employed in the country.

The terms of employment contracts are rigid. Permission from the competent authority is therefore needed for the appointment of a foreign employee. The requirements relating to the nationality of employees depend on the type of the company. In case of a stock company, the majority of the members of the board of directors must have Swiss or EU/EFTA country citizenship and must be domiciled in Switzerland, whereas for any other type of company there are no similar restrictions.

Minimum Wage: No minimum wages act in Switzerland. However safeguards are in place to prevent ‘wage dumping’ – the practice whereby the salaries paid to the workers from the EU countries are less than the local wages.
Average Wage: Approximately USD 3,000 per month for un-skilled workers, and USD 4,500 per month for skilled employees.
Social contributions: Social Security Contributions Paid By Employers: 5.05 %.
Social Security Contributions Paid By Employees: 5.05 %.

Social Dialogue and Involvement of Social Partners: Switzerland does not have strong trade unions. Labor/management relations are good, mostly characterized by a willingness on both sides to settle disputes by negotiations rather than by strikes.
Unions: SGB / USS SCHWEIZERISCHE GEWERKSCHAFTBUND UNION (Trade union centre)
Unionization Rate: 25% of the country’s full-time workers are unionized.
Labor Regulation Bodies: Switzerland Labour Law Profile
Swiss Managers Union
Central Union of the Managers

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