Published on 16 September 2025

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs)

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) have social security obligations and rights. If you run this kind of business, you must ensure that both you and your employees have proper social security coverage.

Social security cover: mandatory or optional?

Depending on the legal structure of your business, some social security schemes are mandatory; others are optional.

  • If your business is a limited company (SA/AG) or limited liability company (Sàrl/GmbH), you have joint employer/employee status. Most types of social insurance are therefore mandatory.
  • f your business is an individual undertaking (sole proprietorship), a limited partnership or general partnership, you have self-employed status. Many types of social insurance are therefore optional.
    What social insurance rules apply to the self-employed?

If you have one or more employees, you have various obligations to your workforce. These include ensuring that they have the proper social security coverage.

Contributions

1st pillar

The 1st pillar, which consists of old-age and survivors' insurance (OASI), invalidity insurance (AI) and income compensation insurance (IC), is mandatory. You must pay half of the contributions OASI/AI/IC for all your employees: Swiss and foreign nationals, foreign nationals, members of your family, and for yourself, regardless of whether you have employee or self-employed status.

2nd pillar

You must insure all your employees who earn at least CHF 22,680 per year with an occupational benefit plan (pension fund). You are responsible for paying at least half of your employees' occupational pension contributions.

Occupational pension coverage is optional if you are self-employed.

Unemployment insurance

You pay unemployment insurance contributions for your employees together with the first-pillar contributions.

You are not eligible for unemployment insurance cover if you are self-employed.

Accident insurance

You must take out occupational accident cover for every member of your workforce. You must also pay into a non-occupational accident insurance plan for all employees who work more than eight hours per week for you.

You are solely responsible for paying the occupational accident insurance premiums. However, you may deduct non-occupational accident insurance premiums from your employees' salaries.

Accident insurance cover is optional if you are self-employed.

Family allowances

You must register your company with a family allowances office. Registration is mandatory regardless of whether you or your employees have children or not. As an employer, you pay the contributions in full. However, in the canton of Valais, employees pay contributions, too.

Daily sickness allowances

If one of your employees falls ill, you must continue to pay their salary for a certain period of time. It is therefore advisable, but not compulsory, to take out daily allowance insurance cover for your employees. You and your employees each pay half of the premium.

If you are employed by your own company or are self-employed, daily sickness allowance insurance cover is optional.

Further informations about procedure and contributions

If the wage bill of your SME is relatively low, you have the option of using the simplified settlement procedure. You find details in this leaflet:

More details about contributions on the page Overview of social security contributions

Benefits

Your company's employees are entitled to various Swiss social security benefits. You also have the same entitlements if you are employed by your company. You will find a list of benefit entitlements by insurance scheme here: Contributions & Benefits

If you are self-employed, your benefit entitlements may differ: What social insurance rules apply to the self-employed?

Registration

When you set up your company, you must inform and register with the competent compensation office

  • If you are a member of a professional association with its own compensation office, you must register with it.
  • If you are not a member of an association with its own compensation office, you must register with the compensation office in your canton of residence or in the canton where your business is registered.

You must also join an approved pension fund (occupational pension scheme). These can be:

  • an existing pension fund (e.g. your professional association's collective or joint pension institution, an insurance company or a bank); or
  • the LOB Substitute Occupational Benefit Institution; or
  • an occupational pension fund which you have set up (possible in theory).

If you have employees, you must also take out accident insurance cover with an insurance provider of your choice.

With regard to family allowances insurance, you must register with a family allowances office (CAF):

  • the CAF managed by the compensation office where your association is registered; or
  • another professional CAF; or
  • the cantonal family allowances office.

Further information

You will find detailed information on the SECO's website for SMEs: SECO SME portal

Self-employment and social security cover: Self-employment in Switzerland: Your guide to social insurance

Contacts

List of professional fund associations: Professional fund associations | Contacts | OASI/DI Information Center

List of cantonal compensation offices: Cantonal compensation offices | Contacts | OASI/DI Information Center

Occupational pension fund register: Directory of supervised institutions · Supervisory authority for OPA and foundations in French-speaking Switzerland (in French and German)

LOB Substitute Occupational Institution : Home - LOB Substitute Occupational Institution