Federal popular initiative "1:12 - For fair wages"

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Contra and pro poster for the 1:12 initiative

The federal popular initiative “1:12 - For fair wages” was a popular initiative by the Young Socialists to amend the Swiss Federal Constitution . The referendum demanded that nobody should earn more than twelve times as much as the worst-paid employees in the same company. In the vote on November 24, 2013, the initiative was clearly rejected.

initiative

submission

The 1:12 initiative was published in the Federal Gazette on October 6, 2009 and was in the collection phase until April 6, 2011. It was submitted to the Federal Chancellery on March 21, 2011 with 113,005 valid signatures .

text

The initiative was worded as follows:

I.

The federal constitution is amended as follows:

Art. 110a (new) wage policy

1The highest wage paid by a company must not be higher than twelve times the lowest wage paid by the same company. The wage is the sum of all benefits (money and the value of goods and services) that are paid in connection with gainful employment.

2The federal government issues the necessary regulations. It regulates in particular:

a. the exceptions, namely with regard to the wages for people in training, interns and people with sheltered jobs;

b. the application to temporary and part-time employment.

II

The transitional provisions of the Federal Constitution are supplemented as follows:

Art. 197 No. 8 (new)

8. Transitional provision to Art. 110a

(Wage policy)

If federal legislation does not come into force within two years of the adoption of Article 110a by the people and the cantons, the Federal Council shall issue the necessary implementing provisions by ordinance until the federal legislation comes into force.

Assessment of the consequences

The consequences of an adoption were controversially discussed in the voting campaign. Various studies were presented:

On behalf of the Commercial Association wrote Christian Keuschnigg from the University of St. Gallen a study. Accordingly, the adoption of the popular initiative would, in the worst case, cause tax and contribution losses of up to 1.6 billion Swiss francs in direct federal taxes and up to 2.5 billion in contributions to the AHV . Effects at the cantonal level are not yet taken into account.

A study presented by the initiators assumes that 2500 top earners are affected and that 60 to 100 percent of the roughly 2.5 billion francs of the wages saved by top earners will be redistributed to lower incomes. If you add all the effects together, this would result in a maximum loss of CHF 50 million a year for the AHV, but at least the same amount of additional income from taxes.

An independent study by the KOF Economic Research Center at ETH Zurich (KOF) comes to the conclusion that the possible effects of the referendum cannot be quantified. In the event of an assumption, around 1200 companies with a total of 4400 top earners would be affected by around 313,000 companies across Switzerland. According to the KOF calculation, the upper wage limit would be 664,000 francs after the initiative was adopted. About 1.5 billion francs in wages would be released, which would correspond to 0.5 percent of the total wage bill in Switzerland.

Voting slogans

The initiative was supported by the SP , the Greens , the Swiss Democrats , the CSP and the Swiss Confederation of Trade Unions .

It was rejected by the SVP , the FDP , the CVP , the BDP , the GLP and the EPP as well as the Swiss Employers' Association , the Swiss Trade Association and Economiesuisse .

In addition, the National Council , the Council of States and the Federal Council rejected the initiative.

Voting result

The referendum was clearly rejected with a turnout of 53% with 65.3% of the votes. No canton accepted the initiative.

The bill received the least approval in the canton of Zug , where it was only accepted by 22.96% of the voters, and most in the canton of Ticino , where it was supported by 49.03% of the voters and in 6 out of 8 districts . Other Swiss districts with majorities in favor of the initiative were the Freiberg Mountains in the canton of Jura , the Neuchâtel district of La-Chaux-de-Fonds at the time , and the Moesa region in the canton of Graubünden, which is also Italian-speaking like Ticino .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Juso fight with initiative for wage limits - Switzerland - Tagesschau - Swiss television
  2. ↑ Juso launch popular initiative against excessive wages. In: Basler Zeitung . July 4, 2009 (bazonline.ch) ( Memento from July 1, 2012 in the web archive archive.today )
  3. ↑ Announcements from the departments and offices. Collection deadline until April 6, 2011: Federal popular initiative “1:12 - For fair wages”. PDF at admin.ch
  4. ↑ Federal Popular Initiative '1:12 - For fair wages'. Federal Chancellery , accessed on August 1, 2016 .
  5. ↑ Study on the 1:12 initiative on tax losses and problems with social insurance. In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung.
  6. ↑ Study by the initiators revealed - 1:12 suddenly becomes 1:20 , article in Blick from October 2, 2013.
  7. ↑ According to the study, the effects of the 1:12 initiative cannot be quantified , Blick article from October 4, 2013.
  8. ↑ M. Siegenthaler: The 1:12 Initiative - A contribution to the situation from today's perspective. ( Memento from April 8, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) KOF Studies, 44, Zurich, October 2013.
  9. ↑ Watchlist of the Swiss Democrats. Section "Slogans for the Federal Votes of November 24, 2013". Retrieved August 5, 2016 .
  10. ↑ a b Parole index of the NZZ. NZZ , November 12, 2013, accessed on August 5, 2016 .
  11. ↑ Referendum on November 24, 2013. (No longer available online.) Federal Chancellery , archived from the original on August 5, 2016 ; accessed on August 5, 2016 .
  12. ↑ 65.3 percent say no to the 1:12 initiative on Swiss radio and television , accessed on November 24, 2013.
  13. ↑ Referendum of November 24, 2013 - popular initiative “1:12 - For fair wages”, by cantons. (xls) (No longer available online.) Federal Statistical Office , archived from the original on August 24, 2016 ; accessed on August 30, 2016 .
  14. ↑ Simon Gemperli: The wage cover is off the table - different interpretations of the 1:12 initiative by the bourgeoisie and the left . In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung . No. 274 . Zurich November 25, 2013, p. 7 .