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- At the beginning of the year, the unemployment fund was truly debt-free for the first time in ten years.
- But because of Corona everything turns out different: the unemployment fund expects a hole of one billion by the end of the year.
- This has consequences for the most salaried: they have to continue paying the solidarity percentage.
Anyone who earns more than 126,000 francs a year has been paying a solidarity contribution in addition to regular unemployment insurance premiums since 2011. It amounts to 0.5 per cent of salary. Employers also pay another 0.5 percent. It was mainly thanks to this percentage of solidarity that the unemployment fund was able to reduce its debt of billions in ten years.
Therefore, it was planned to cancel this mandatory rate from 2021. With Corona, however, nothing is out of it, as confirmed by Boris Zürcher, Head of the Labor Directorate of the State Secretariat for the Economy (Seco). “That is sad news in that regard.”
Everything remains the same
At the beginning of the year, when the fund was completely discharged, Zürcher announced that the solidarity percentage could be raised next year if the development remained the same. “That would also be required by law,” says Zürcher.
This is required by law because unemployment insurance no longer had debts. Solo: Because of Corona, the unemployment fund is returning to the red. Zürcher expects a hole of two to three billion francs by the end of the year.
This level of indebtedness is not dramatic, says Zürcher: “But it no longer allows the solidarity percentage to be eliminated. Those with the highest incomes will have to pay this contribution to labor insurance. “In 2019, this solidarity percentage was 300 million Swiss francs.
Debts grow back
While high-income people are still being asked to pay, employees who earn less than 126,000 francs a year are saved. You only have to pay more unemployment insurance premiums if the unemployment insurance fund again accumulates debts of at least eight billion francs.
But that will not happen for the moment. Because the federal government bears the costs of short-term work related to Corona by paying a good 20 billion francs from the federal budget.
But because unemployment insurance not only covers short-time work, but you also have to pay unemployment benefits, a new funding gap still emerges. Because compared to the previous year, 51,000 more employees receive daily unemployment benefits. Therefore, unemployment insurance debt is growing again, despite support from the federal budget.
