Lohnpfändung: How Much of Your Wage Can Be Seized in Switzerland

A Lohnpfändung notice does not seize a fixed slice of a paycheck. It seizes only the amount left over once the debtor and their family have what they genuinely need to live on, a standard that sounds simple and is applied through a set of guidelines that never appear in the statute itself.

This page works through Art. 93 SchKG, the KKB guidelines that actually supply the franc figures, what gets added to the baseline, and a full worked example in CHF. It is part of our wider Betreibung and debt enforcement coverage, itself part of the broader guide to Swiss law.

Information last verified on 20 July 2026. This page provides general legal information about Swiss law and does not constitute legal advice in an individual case.

Art. 93 SchKG: the standard, not a formula

Art. 93 Abs. 1 SchKG sets out what can be seized from a debtor's income. Wages of every kind, usufruct income, life annuities, maintenance payments, pensions and any benefit that compensates for lost earnings or a maintenance claim can all be seized, but only to the extent that, in the enforcement officer's judgment, they are not indispensable for the debtor and their family.

That phrase, "nach dem Ermessen des Betreibungsbeamten," is doing real work. The statute delegates the entire question of what counts as indispensable to the discretion of the individual Betreibungsbeamte handling the case, rather than fixing an amount in the text. Nowhere does Art. 93 SchKG use the word Existenzminimum at all.

Art. 93 Abs. 2 SchKG caps a single income seizure at one year, running from when it takes effect. Abs. 3 requires the office to adjust the seized amount if the debtor's circumstances change materially during that year, in either direction.

How a Lohnpfändung actually begins

A wage seizure is not the opening move in a Betreibung. It only becomes available once the underlying claim is no longer disputed, or any dispute over it has already been cleared.

If the debtor never raised a Rechtsvorschlag against the Zahlungsbefehl, the creditor can ask the Betreibungsamt to continue the Betreibung as early as 20 days after service, under Art. 88 SchKG, and up to a year afterward. If the debtor did object, the creditor first has to clear that objection before the same continuation request becomes available.

Only once the office has processed that Fortsetzungsbegehren does it move on to Pfändung, seizing either assets or, where wages are the practical target, ongoing income under Art. 93 SchKG. A debtor facing a Lohnpfändung notice is, by definition, already past the point where the underlying debt could still be disputed through a Rechtsvorschlag.

Where the actual numbers come from: the KKB, not the statute

Because Art. 93 SchKG sets no figures, the day to day calculation is done using guidelines from the KKB, the Konferenz der Betreibungs und Konkursbeamten der Schweiz, the national conference of Swiss enforcement and bankruptcy officials. This is the single most important structural point on this page, and it is easy to miss.

A reader searching for the exact franc amount that is protected from Lohnpfändung will not find it in the SchKG. They will find it in a KKB guideline document that individual cantonal Betreibungsamt offices apply through their own circulars. The statute supplies the principle. The KKB supplies the number.

The Grundbetrag figures, and the honest caveat around them

The KKB's guideline for calculating the betreibungsrechtliches Existenzminimum, dated 1 July 2009, sets a monthly Grundbetrag of CHF 1,200 for a single debtor living alone, CHF 1,350 for a single parent raising children alone, and CHF 1,700 for a married couple, two people in a registered partnership, or a couple with children. It adds a children's supplement of CHF 400 per month for each child up to age 10, and CHF 600 per month for each child over age 10.

Three things need to be said plainly about that source before anyone treats these as fixed 2026 numbers. First, the document is dated 1 July 2009 and is pegged to a consumer price index reading from December 2008. It states its own figures are meant to hold steady unless that index moves above 115 or below 95 points, which is why the same numbers are still the reference figure today rather than evidence the guideline is stale.

Second, cantons apply this baseline through their own circulars, and it could not be confirmed here whether any specific canton has since adjusted the Grundbetrag above the national figure. Third, the guideline states plainly that taxes are not counted toward the Existenzminimum at all, citing a Federal Supreme Court ruling on that point.

Do not read the CHF 1,200 or 1,700 figures as a guaranteed, currently updated national number. Use them as the KKB's own reference baseline, confirmed against the KKB's national guideline document, and confirm the figure actually applied in any specific case with the debtor's own Betreibungsamt, whose current cantonal circular governs.

What gets added on top of the Grundbetrag

The Grundbetrag is only the starting line item. Actual housing costs, meaning rent or mortgage interest for a modest home appropriate to the family's size, are added on top of it, not folded into it. Compulsory health insurance premiums, meaning the basic Krankenversicherung required of every Swiss resident, are added as well.

Unavoidable work related costs come next, most commonly commuting expenses and, where relevant, a modest allowance for work clothing or tools. Since 1 July 2024, Art. 93 Abs. 4 SchKG also lets the office direct an employer to forward a debtor's current compulsory health insurance premiums and cost sharing directly to the office, at the debtor's own request, to the extent those amounts belong within the debtor's Existenzminimum.

Together, the Grundbetrag plus these add ons form the debtor's full Existenzminimum for the purpose of the seizure. Only income above that combined total can actually be seized.

A worked example in CHF

Take a single debtor with no children, earning CHF 5,500 net per month. The debtor pays CHF 1,400 in monthly rent, CHF 350 in compulsory health insurance premiums, and has unavoidable commuting costs of roughly CHF 150 per month.

The Existenzminimum in this case starts with the single person Grundbetrag of CHF 1,200, then adds the CHF 1,400 rent, the CHF 350 health insurance premium, and the CHF 150 in work costs. That totals CHF 3,100 per month that the office treats as indispensable.

Subtracting that CHF 3,100 from the CHF 5,500 net income leaves CHF 2,400 per month available for seizure. That CHF 2,400 is what the Betreibungsamt can direct the employer to withhold and forward toward the debt, month by month, for as long as the seizure runs.

Change the facts and the number moves with them. Take a couple with two children, one aged 8 and one aged 12, with combined net income of CHF 8,200 per month. Their Grundbetrag layer starts at CHF 1,700 for the couple, plus CHF 400 for the younger child and CHF 600 for the older one, for a Grundbetrag subtotal of CHF 2,700.

Add their actual rent of CHF 2,200, family health insurance premiums of CHF 900, and unavoidable work costs of CHF 200, and the household Existenzminimum comes to CHF 6,000 per month. Subtracting that from the CHF 8,200 combined income leaves CHF 2,200 per month available for seizure, even though the household earns nearly CHF 2,700 more than the single debtor in the first example above.

How long it runs, and what happens if income changes

A single Pfändung of income runs for a maximum of one year under Art. 93 Abs. 2 SchKG, starting from when it takes effect. If several creditors are seizing the same income together, the year runs from the first seizure in that group, not separately for each creditor who joins later.

Art. 93 Abs. 3 SchKG requires the Betreibungsamt to revisit the calculation if the debtor's circumstances change materially during that year. A debtor who loses their job, takes a pay cut, or gains a dependent can have the seized amount reduced or the seizure lifted entirely if income now falls below the Existenzminimum. A debtor whose income rises can likewise see the seized amount increase.

When the one year period ends, continuing to collect the debt through wage seizure requires the creditor to have the Betreibungsamt open a fresh Pfändung, not an automatic rollover of the same order.

Where it ends if the debt is not fully covered

Ordinary individuals not on the commercial register in a qualifying business capacity go through Pfändung rather than Konkurs, which is why wage seizure, rather than a full bankruptcy proceeding, is the mechanism most private debtors actually face. If the seized income and any other seized assets still do not cover what is owed, the creditor does not simply lose the remainder.

Under Art. 149 SchKG, the creditor receives a Verlustschein for the uncovered portion of the claim. That certificate itself counts as a signed acknowledgment of debt, meaning the creditor can restart enforcement on it later without a fresh lawsuit, and it lets the creditor freeze any newly discovered Swiss assets on sight. Under Art. 149a SchKG, the claim behind a Verlustschein does not simply expire with time. It remains enforceable for 20 years from issuance, or until one year after the debtor's death against the estate, and is only actually deleted from the register once it has been paid off in full.

For a fuller picture of what a Verlustschein means and the options available to a debtor whose debts have reached this point, see our personal insolvency page.