A coalition of trade unions and political parties has submitted more than 100,000 signatures against a law recently passed by Parliament that would allow collective labour agreements (CLAs) to take precedence over minimum wages set by cantons or municipalities. According to SWI swissinfo.ch, which carries a Keystone-ATS dispatch published on 7 October 2026, the final say could go to the people. But at this stage, nothing has been settled yet.
What the law provides
The text passed by Parliament would allow industry-wide CLAs declared generally binding to prevail over statutory minimum wages decided at cantonal or municipal level. In practice, in an industry covered by such an agreement, the CLA pay scale would be authoritative, rather than the wage floor set by the canton or the city.
The source specifies neither the industries concerned nor the amounts at stake: it does not compare cantonal minimum wages with CLA minimums. The actual effect for a company or an employee will therefore depend on the gap, in each industry, between these two benchmarks, a gap the source does not quantify.
Which cantons and cities are affected
Five cantons currently apply a minimum wage: Geneva, Neuchâtel, Basel-City, Jura and Ticino. Three of them, Jura, Basel-City and Ticino, are however not affected by the law, as their provisions already allow CLAs declared generally binding to take precedence. By deduction, among the cantons that already apply a minimum wage, it is therefore Geneva and Neuchâtel that would be affected. The source does not put it in these terms.
Several cities have also introduced their own minimum wage, including Zurich, Winterthur and Lucerne. The source does not say whether these minimum wages are already in force in each of them.
For employees: expected increases that may not come
The most direct effect concerns minimum wages that have already been approved but have not yet come into force. In the cantons and cities in this situation, several tens of thousands of workers would not benefit from them if the law applied, according to the source. This figure remains an overall estimate: the breakdown by canton, city or industry is not given.
For the households concerned, what is at stake is therefore measured by the difference between the local minimum wage they were expecting and the one provided for by their industry's CLA. The source provides nothing with which to assess this difference.
For employers: which wage benchmark to apply
For businesses, the law would change the benchmark to be applied in industries covered by a CLA declared generally binding: the industry agreement rather than the cantonal or municipal minimum. For an employer operating in Geneva or Neuchâtel, or in a city with a minimum wage, the practical question is which of the two rules applies to its employees. As long as the fate of the law has not been decided, this uncertainty remains. The source does not address the consequences for wage costs or business planning.
What each side argues
The opponents, the unions and parties brought together in the referendum coalition, describe the law as an “attack on low-wage workers”.
The source does not report the arguments of the text's supporters, nor those of the Parliament that passed it. For the sake of balance, it should therefore be stressed that only the opponents' reading is documented here. The reasons put forward in favour of the precedence of CLAs have yet to be set out.
Next steps: a likely vote, not yet scheduled
The Federal Chancellery must first verify the signatures, then decide whether the referendum has succeeded. Given the number of signatures submitted, this step should be little more than a formality, according to the source. This is, however, an expectation, not yet a decision.
If the referendum is confirmed, the vote could take place in February or June 2027. Here again, this is a forecast: no date has been set at this stage.
