The Federal Statistical Office (FSO) published on Monday the results of a study on the cultural economy in Switzerland in 2023. For the first time, detailed data on salaries are presented and strong disparities are noted, in particularly between men and women.
In 2023, Switzerland had 285,000 cultural workers, which represents 5.6% of the active population. Half had a part-time job.
In culture, atypical working conditions are very widespread, writes Monday theFederal Statistical Office (OFS): 50% of people have a part-time job (compared to 38% of all workers), 14% have several jobs (8% in the economy in general) and the share of self-employed people (27%) is significantly higher than in the economy in general (14%). According to the definition adopted by the Statistical Office of the EU (Eurostat), culture also includes the media, architecture, video games and advertising, areas which largely call on creativity.
A median salary below average
Cultural professionals earned a median salary of 69,600 francs in 2023 compared to 72,000 francs in the economy in general.
Full-time, people who exercised a cultural profession in the cultural sector, such as an orchestral musician, earned 90,000 francs. As for people exercising a non-cultural profession in the cultural sector, such as a theater accountant, they received a slightly lower income (86,500 francs). The cultural workers who earned the most were those who exercised a cultural profession outside the cultural sector (98,000 francs). For example, this could be a graphic designer employed by a bank.
Better paid men
The difference in salary by gender is marked among cultural workers. Men earned 85,000 francs in culture while women received 56,700 francs, a gap comparable to that observed in the economy as a whole. These figures strongly depend on the employment rate: as in the economy in general, in culture too, more women have part-time work (65% of women, compared to 36% of men).
But even full-time, women carrying out a cultural activity earned significantly less than their male colleagues (78,000 francs compared to 98,000). This is partly explained by the hierarchical position: as for other sectors of the economy, managerial functions in culture are significantly more often occupied by men (by 37% of them, compared to 22% of women ).
There are also differences depending on nationality and migratory background: in 2023, cultural professionals of Swiss nationality earned 92,400 francs for full time, compared to 84,000 for those of other nationalities. We also note a salary gap between cultural workers with a migrant background (86,000 francs) and those who are not (92,700 francs).
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