[ornornor]

I’d say it’s very good. I don’t know about Zürich where rent is higher but overall it works out pretty well considering the overall package: much better employment insurance (1-2 years at 80% of your salary, including if you quit), vacation (5 weeks minimum by law + statutory holidays), health insurance (healthcare is not cheap here compared to Germany or France or Italy but the max deductible allowed for policies is 2500/year/adult), paid overtime (again, by law), 1-3 months notice period when quitting or laying off, and companies (generally) aren’t as trigger happy: if they hire you it’s not to fire you as soon as the wind changes. Oh and parental leave by law (don’t know the specifics).

That’s my understanding, if I made a mistake please correct me.

Yes food costs more, so does clothing etc. But taxes aren’t suuuper high in my opinion (around 20-30% with health insurance paid separately), VAT is 7.7%, and you can get anywhere by train for quite cheap (super saver tickets let you go across Switzerland for 20 francs, if you plan a bit ahead).

The caveat is that unless you have an EU passport or marry a Swiss, it’s almost impossible to get a work visa. And if you’re a US citizen, there is no bank that will want to take you as a customer.

Banks are a big employer but there are also insurance companies. I’m joking, these two are big but there are startups as well, consultancies, big entreprise type of jobs, etc.