AHV (1st Pillar)

The AHV, short for Alters- und Hinterlassenenversicherung, is Switzerland's old-age and survivors' insurance: the state pension, and the first of the three pillars. It's compulsory. If you live or work in Switzerland, you pay into it, and from the reference age of 65 it pays you a pension for life. For women born between 1961 and 1963 the reference age lies between 64 and 65; for women born from 1964 on it's 65, as for men.

Contributions start in the January after your 17th birthday if you work, and in the January after your 20th birthday for everyone, students included. Without earned income you pay at least CHF 530 a year (2026) yourself, unless you're married to someone who works, in the AHV's sense, and pays at least CHF 1,060 a year, twice the minimum. Your own contributions then count as paid.

The AHV doesn't save your contributions for you. It's pay-as-you-go: the money that comes in from people in work goes straight out to the people who are retired.

Every employee pays 4.35% of their salary to the AHV, and their employer pays another 4.35%. The federal government adds 20.2% of what the AHV spends each year, and in 2026 a full old-age pension is between CHF 1,260 and CHF 2,520 a month. On a payslip the deduction says 5.3%, because it also pays for disability insurance (IV) and income compensation (EO). On a salary of CHF 6,000 a month, you pay CHF 318.00 and your employer another CHF 318.00, of which CHF 261.00 each goes to the AHV.

A full pension needs a complete record: contributions for every year from the January after your 20th birthday until you reach the reference age, 44 years with a reference age of 65. Each year that's missing costs you:

As a rule, one missing year cuts your pension by at least 1/44, which is 2.27%. On the maximum pension of CHF 2,520 a month, 1/44 is CHF 57.27 a month. A gap opens more easily than you'd think: a year abroad, or a year of studying or travelling without paying the minimum contribution. You can only pay missing contributions for the last five years; after that the gap stays. Contributions you paid between the ages of 18 and 20, your youth years, can later fill a gap. To check your record, order a free extract of your account, the IK-Auszug, from your compensation office or at ahv-iv.ch.

The AHV is meant to cover basic needs, not your accustomed standard of living. There's no upper limit on contributions from earned income, but there is one on the pension: someone earning CHF 1 million a year pays CHF 87,000 into the AHV together with their employer, and still receives at most CHF 32,760 a year, the 2026 maximum including the 13th pension. The AHV moves money from higher incomes to lower ones, and the pension fund and your own savings have to do the rest.

Pay-as-you-go also depends on how many people work for every person who is retired. When that ratio falls, the AHV needs more money from somewhere: VAT was raised by one percentage point in 1999 and by 0.4 points in 2024 to help pay for it.