Hiring a cleaner, a nanny, a gardener or a private driver turns your household into an employer in the full sense of Swiss labour law. This shift often takes people by surprise: you think you are giving someone work, and in fact you become the debtor of a salary, of contributions and of a series of administrative formalities. In Geneva, the framework is precise and well documented. Mastering it in advance spares you back-payment demands, disputes and any exposure to undeclared work. It is the same rigour a family office applies to a portfolio, carried over into your domestic life.
A mandatory standard employment contract: the CTT-EDom
The canton of Geneva governs domestic employment through a standard employment contract dedicated to the domestic economy (CTT-EDom). It applies to anyone employed in a private household — cleaner, childminder, carer for an elderly or disabled relative, gardener, cook, driver. This contract sets, among other things, minimum gross wages that vary with qualification and experience, along with the reference full-time working hours. These amounts are revised regularly: rather than quoting a figure that will age, consult the official grid of CTTs in force and the Conditions and obligations page.
One essential point: the CTT-EDom minimum wage applies regardless of the level of employment — even for a few hours a week and even for occasional work. There is no threshold below which you would be exempt. The salary must also be paid by the last day of the month worked.
The written contract and working conditions
Even though an oral agreement is legally binding, a written contract protects both parties. It states the role, the activity rate, the gross hourly or monthly wage, working hours, holidays, public holidays and notice periods. The CTT-EDom is a minimum floor: you may offer more, never less. For some years the canton has also required loss-of-earnings insurance in the event of illness, the premium of which is shared between employer and employee; here again, the official page describes the applicable scheme.
Social insurance: mandatory affiliation
From the very first franc of salary, your employee must be declared to the social insurance schemes: AVS, AI, APG, unemployment insurance, family allowances, accident insurance (LAA) and, above a certain income threshold, occupational pension (LPP). As the employer, you withhold the employee's share from the salary and pay the whole amount — including the employer's share — to your compensation fund. Rates and thresholds are set at federal level and detailed in the official leaflets; we devote a separate article to this, but bear in mind that none of these schemes is optional for regular domestic employment.
Withholding tax, depending on the permit
If your employee is not a Swiss national and does not hold a settlement permit (permit C), their salary is in principle subject to withholding tax, which you must deduct and remit to the cantonal tax administration. An employee holding a permit C, on the other hand, is not taxed at source: they are taxed on an ordinary basis like any resident taxpayer. For other statuses, you are the debtor of the taxable benefit: it is up to you to withhold the tax. The canton offers a simplified procedure via the compensation fund, which deducts and remits the tax once a year, or a classic monthly settlement that takes family circumstances into account. The details and scales are set out on the Declaring household staff for tax page.
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The work permit
Employing a foreign national assumes they hold a valid residence and work authorisation. Checking this is no mere formality: hiring without a permit exposes the employer to sanctions and amounts to undeclared work, which the canton actively combats in private households as elsewhere.
The salary certificate and keeping records
Each year you draw up a salary certificate summarising the pay awarded and the deductions made; your employee uses this document for their own tax situation and, where relevant, for any withholding-tax corrections. Keeping payslips, contribution statements and proof of payment is not an optional precaution: it is what protects you in the event of a compensation-fund audit or a disagreement with your employee. Keeping records steadily, month after month, costs far less energy than reconstructing them retrospectively under the pressure of a back-payment demand.
Multiple employers and part-time work
Many households share the same helper with other homes, or employ someone only a few hours a week. This changes nothing about the principle: each employer affiliates and declares the portion of salary it pays, independently of the others. Part-time work is never a grey area. It is precisely in these fragmented set-ups that affiliations are most often forgotten, resulting in contribution gaps for the employee and a risk for the employer.
Bringing order to all of this
None of these obligations is insurmountable, but their accumulation — contract, multiple affiliations, contribution statements, salary certificate, withholding tax — consumes time and attention that are not yours to spare. We coordinate these steps with the same method applied to the most demanding wealth files: framing the contract, correct affiliations, monitoring deadlines, a single point of contact. Let's discuss your situation.
The amounts and scales cited point to the canton's official pages, which are indexed annually: the linked page prevails, and we verified them on 2026-09-20.