Switzerland
Latest Average Wage
+7.1% · 5 years
$92,285
Country Comparison
Switzerland vs France
Compare average wages, long-term wage changes and eight consumer price categories using OECD data.
At a Glance
Switzerland
vs
France
$92,2852025
Latest Average Wage
Switzerland +52.6%
(vs France)
$60,4832025
+7.1%2025
5-Year Wage Change
Switzerland +3.4 pts
(vs France)
+3.7%2025
+5.8%2025
10-Year Wage Change
Switzerland +4.1 pts
(vs France)
+1.7%2025
1192024
Overall Price Level
Switzerland +48.6 index points
(vs France)
70.42024
Wages are PPP-adjusted average annual wages; price levels use the United States reference of 100. Years shown are each country's latest reported observation.
How Wages Have Changed
Follow PPP-adjusted average annual wages in constant prices across both economies.
USD PPP, constant prices · missing years shown as gaps, never interpolated
France
Latest Average Wage
+3.7% · 5 years
$60,483
Wage Milestones
Switzerland
10 Years Ago
$87,262 (2015)
Historical Peak
$92,285 (2025)
Latest Wage
$92,285 (2025)
France
10 Years Ago
$59,485 (2015)
Historical Peak
$61,289 (2019)
Latest Wage
$60,483 (2025)
Compare Everyday Price Levels
See how eight consumer price categories compare with the United States reference value of 100.
United States = 100 · Differences shown in index points
Switzerland (CHE)France (FRA)
Overall
+48.6 index points
100
119vs70.4
Food
+43.6 index points
100
137vs93.4
Clothing
+36.9 index points
100
123vs86.1
Housing
+50.7 index points
100
119vs68.3
Health
+51.1 index points
100
94.5vs43.4
Transport
+20.0 index points
100
134vs114
Recreation
+53.8 index points
100
136vs82.2
Restaurants & Accommodation
+49.9 index points
100
140vs90.1
What Stands Out
01
Latest Wage Gap
Switzerland's latest average wage is $92,285 for 2025, about 52.6% higher than France's $60,483 for 2025 — computed straight from the two reported values. That is roughly $31,802 a year on the same PPP basis.
02
Stronger Recent Trend
On the latest one-year change, France shows the stronger movement at +1.0%, against +0.1% for Switzerland. The five-year horizon reverses the ordering — Switzerland at +7.1% and France at +3.7% — so the latest year is not the whole story. Both percentages are real, PPP-adjusted changes from the reported wage series.
03
Largest Price Gap
Recreation shows the widest price gap of the comparable categories in 2024: 136 for Switzerland against 82.2 for France. Switzerland sits on the higher side of that 53.8-point spread; France reads 53.8 index points lower on the US=100 scale. The gap is stated in index points, which are not interchangeable with percentages.
04
Closest Price Category
The closest category is Transport: Switzerland reads 134 and France 114 for 2024, just 20.0 index points apart on the US=100 scale. The next closest is Clothing at 36.9 index points apart. Closeness here describes the index readings only, not the baskets behind them.
Understanding the Comparison
Wage Position
The wage levels in this pairing are far apart: Switzerland reports $92,285 for 2025, while France reports $60,483 for 2025. The higher figure exceeds the lower one by 52.6% in relative terms — a percentage calculated from the two reported values — or roughly $31,802 a year. Both figures are expressed in USD PPP at constant 2025 prices, so they can be set side by side without any further conversion. For scale, neither series has moved by that much within any single reported year, so the gap is structural rather than the product of one unusual observation. Over ten years Switzerland recorded +5.8% and France +1.7%, so the two series have been moving in the same long-term direction.
Wage Direction
Both wage series rise over the five-year horizon, though not at the same pace. Switzerland sits at the highest point of its series — $92,285 in 2025 is also the historical peak, with a ten-year change of +5.8%. France stands just below its historical high of $61,289 in 2019, only 1.3% away, with a ten-year change of +1.7%. Switzerland's five-year change of +7.1% outpaces France's +3.7% in magnitude, so the common direction does not mean the two levels are holding a fixed distance. Each percentage is a real, PPP-adjusted change; nominal pay movements are outside what this dataset reports.
Price Profile
Switzerland's overall consumer price level for 2024 reads 119, and France's reads 70.4, each measured against the United States reference of 100. One side of this pairing dominates the price profile: Switzerland sits higher in 8 of the 8 comparable categories. Recreation separates the two most: Switzerland reads 136 and France 82.2, 53.8 index points apart. The two sit closest in Transport (134 versus 114), only 20.0 index points apart. Counted against the US reference of 100, 7 of Switzerland's 8 reported categories sit above the line, against 1 of France's 8. These are index values for 2024, not currency amounts; categories without a reported value on either side are left out of the comparison.
Wage and price data should not be combined into a verdict on which country is better to live in.
