Working days in Switzerland in 2012
There are 241 working days in Switzerland in 2012, counting Monday to Friday and excluding 29 public holidays that fall on a weekday. That is from 366 calendar days, with 105 weekend days removed.
Working days
241
Mon-Fri, holidays removed
Weekend days
105
Saturdays + Sundays
Weekday holidays
29
4 more fall on weekends
Avg / month
20.1
working days per month
Month-by-month working days in 2012
| Month | Days | Weekends | Holidays | Working days |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 31 | 9 | 2 | 20 |
| February | 29 | 8 | 0 | 21 |
| March | 31 | 9 | 2 | 20 |
| April | 30 | 9 | 3 | 18 |
| May | 31 | 8 | 3 | 20 |
| June | 30 | 9 | 2 | 19 |
| July | 31 | 9 | 0 | 22 |
| August | 31 | 8 | 2 | 21 |
| September | 30 | 10 | 2 | 18 |
| October | 31 | 8 | 0 | 23 |
| November | 30 | 8 | 1 | 21 |
| December | 31 | 10 | 3 | 18 |
| Total | 366 | 105 | 29 | 241 |
Public holidays excluded from the 2012 working-day count
These are the 29 public holidays in Switzerland that land on a weekday in 2012 and therefore remove a working day. Holidays that fall on a weekend are not listed here because they do not change the working-day total.
- St. Berchtold's DayMon, Jan 2
- EpiphanyFri, Jan 6
- EpiphanyFri, Jan 6
- Republic DayThu, Mar 1
- Saint Joseph's DayMon, Mar 19
- Saint Joseph's DayMon, Mar 19
- Näfels processionWed, Apr 4
- Good FridayFri, Apr 6
- Easter MondayMon, Apr 9
- Easter MondayMon, Apr 9
- Labour DayTue, May 1
- Labour DayTue, May 1
- Ascension DayThu, May 17
- Whit MondayMon, May 28
- Whit MondayMon, May 28
- Corpus ChristiThu, Jun 7
- Corpus ChristiThu, Jun 7
- Saint Peter and Saint PaulFri, Jun 29
- Swiss National DayWed, Aug 1
- Assumption of the Virgin MaryWed, Aug 15
- Assumption of the Virgin MaryWed, Aug 15
- Geneva PraydayThu, Sep 6
- Federal Fast MondayMon, Sep 17
- All Saints' DayThu, Nov 1
- All Saints' DayThu, Nov 1
- Christmas DayTue, Dec 25
- St. Stephen's DayWed, Dec 26
- St. Stephen's DayWed, Dec 26
- Restoration DayMon, Dec 31
How working days in Switzerland are counted in 2012
The 241 working days shown above are the 366 calendar days of 2012, minus the 105 Saturdays and Sundays, minus the 29 public holidays that land on a weekday. Holidays that fall on a Saturday or Sunday are not subtracted, because they do not remove a day anyone would have worked; in 2012 that applies to 4 of Switzerland's public holidays. At a standard eight-hour day, 241 working days works out to roughly 1,928 working hours across the year, before any annual leave is taken.
What counts as a working day in Switzerland
Article 18 of the Federal Act on Work (Arbeitsgesetz) prohibits work on Sundays except by permit. The standard private-sector week is Monday to Friday with banks operating Monday to Friday. The Code of Civil Procedure article 142 rolls procedural deadlines falling on a Saturday, Sunday or a cantonally recognised public holiday at the place of the court to the next working day. Settlement of Swiss franc transactions runs on the Swiss Interbank Clearing system operated by SIX Interbank Clearing, which observes a nationally agreed banking calendar narrower than any cantonal list because banks operate across cantonal boundaries.
Switzerland has only one federal public holiday under article 110 of the Federal Constitution: Swiss National Day on 1 August. Every other public holiday is cantonal and varies across the 26 cantons, with some recognising as many as fifteen days and others as few as seven. Catholic cantons observe Epiphany, Saints Peter and Paul, Assumption, All Saints' and Immaculate Conception; Protestant cantons typically do not. Geneva uniquely observes the Jeûne Genevois on the Thursday after the first Sunday of September. The Federal Act on Work in Industry sets New Year's Day, Christmas Day, Ascension and Swiss National Day as equivalent to a Sunday for industrial labour-law purposes everywhere in Switzerland.
This matters because the working-day total is not spread evenly. Some months in Switzerland carry several public holidays while others have none, so the month-by-month table above is the figure to use for payroll runs, billing cycles, SLA windows, and project plans rather than a flat assumption of about 20.1 working days per month. A month with two weekday holidays can have several fewer working days than a clear one, which changes capacity planning and the realistic delivery date for anything scheduled in business days.
Sources for Switzerland holiday and working-day rules
- Federal Constitution article 110
- Federal Act on Work in Industry, Crafts and Commerce (Arbeitsgesetz) article 20a
- Swiss Code of Civil Procedure article 142
- SIX Interbank Clearing calendar
To see the individual dates, the day of the week each holiday lands on, and the full official list, open the Switzerland holiday calendar for 2012. You can subscribe to those dates as an .ics feed so they appear in your own calendar, or use the working-days-between-two-dates calculator to count business days for a specific date range rather than the whole year.
Working-day figures are computed from the public holiday list for Switzerland (source: Nager.Date and the national references above) combined with a Monday-to-Friday business week. Regional holidays and substitute-day rules vary; confirm against the official calendar for legal or payroll use.