Switzerland grants no federal licence for construction: structural building work is a free trade. That freedom is deceptive. Three barriers cost more than any licence would: binding collective agreements that set the wage floor on every site, joint liability that makes you answerable for your subcontractors’ wages, and SUVA, which prices the risk of the trade. This guide takes them in order, including the brand-new national agreement for 2026-2031 that no English source has covered, and the choice every foreign contractor faces: posting workers for 90 days or building a Swiss entity.
Contents
- A free trade, really?
- The collective agreements: the real wage floor
- Joint liability: subcontracting without burning yourself
- Posted workers vs a Swiss entity
- Legal form, capital and bogus self-employment
- SUVA, pensions, liability: the cost of risk
- Undeclared work and site inspections
- Public tenders: the attestations that open bids
- The pitfalls that sink young firms
A free trade, really?
At federal level, no permit is needed to run a masonry, civil engineering or general contracting business: no diploma, no examination, no register. It is one reason the trades rank as Switzerland’s second-largest founding branch, with 5,733 new businesses in 2025. The barrier is not at the counter; it is in the operation.
Two nuances first. Regulated technical trades sit apart: electrical installation requires the federal ESTI licence, as covered in our guide to starting an electrical business, and plumbing and gas run through local utility concessions. And one canton regulates structural work itself: Ticino requires registration in a professional register, the LEPICOSC roll, for works above CHF 30,000. If your market is Ticino, that cantonal barrier shapes the whole project.
The collective agreements: the real wage floor
The sector’s true regulator is collective. On 12 December 2025, the Swiss contractors’ association and the unions Unia and Syna concluded a new national agreement for the main construction sector, ratified in January 2026: a record six-year term, around 80,000 workers covered, minimum wages up 0.2 % in 2026, new rules on working and travel time, and an indexation mechanism protecting purchasing power. For an employer this means wage classes with zone-based minima, regulated supplements, and joint commissions that actually inspect sites.
Two companions complete the picture. The FAR scheme lets structural workers retire from age 60, financed by employer and employee contributions that are an integral part of the branch’s labour cost. And finishing trades, plastering, painting, carpentry, tiling, fall under their own binding regional agreements, notably the CCT-SOR covering the six French-speaking cantons, with separate pay scales and inspection bodies.
My Swiss Company advice
Before pricing your first offer, identify which agreement your actual activity falls under: the wage classes, supplements and joint-fund contributions differ, and an offer calculated on the wrong scale is an offer at a loss. This is the first setting we calibrate with our construction clients.
Joint liability: subcontracting without burning yourself
Construction runs on subcontracting chains, and Swiss law has ring-fenced them with a rule almost no founder knows: in construction, the contracting company is jointly liable for its subcontractors’ failure to pay the minimum wages, under article 5 of the Posted Workers Act. If your subcontractor, Swiss or foreign, underpays its crews, the claims can climb to you.
The law offers a way out: due diligence. Collect wage-compliance attestations, verify documents, write the obligations into the contract, keep the proof. That documentary discipline is not extra paperwork; it is your legal shield, and serious project owners demand it down the whole chain. A young company that installs the process from its first subcontract stands out immediately.
Posted workers vs a Swiss entity
An EU or EFTA construction company can serve Swiss sites for up to 90 days per calendar year under the posted-workers regime: online notification before work starts, and full compliance with Swiss wages and conditions for every posted worker, checked on site. The route works for a one-off project; it does not scale. The days are counted per company and per calendar year, the wage compliance eliminates most of the price advantage, and project owners increasingly prefer local counterparties they can verify.
The switch to a Swiss entity pays off as soon as work becomes recurring: local hiring under the agreements, standing to bid on tenders, VAT registration, and a verifiable Swiss footprint. Where the owners remain abroad, Swiss company law separately requires a resident authorised signatory, which our resident director service covers. The entity does not exempt you from the agreements; it lets you compete inside them.
Your Swiss construction venture
Construction payroll is not improvised, it is structured at incorporation
Applicable agreement, wage classes, FAR and joint-fund contributions, risk insurance, the due-diligence process for subcontracting: everything is set up when the company is formed. My Swiss Company structures the incorporation and then runs Switzerland’s most-inspected payroll, from Geneva, Lucerne or Zug.
Scope your project
A Swiss Corporate Services Provider in Geneva, Lucerne and Zug, serving clients in more than 20 countries.
Legal form, capital and bogus self-employment
No legal form is prescribed. A sole proprietorship suits a craftsman starting alone; the Sàrl/GmbH from CHF 20,000 of capital becomes the norm once there are employees and guarantees to give, the SA/AG from CHF 100,000 for more capitalised structures. The corporate steps are those of any Swiss incorporation, which our company formation services handle end to end.
One warning is worth money in this sector: self-employed status is not declared, it is recognised by the AVS social security fund, on real criteria: several clients, genuine entrepreneurial risk, freedom of organisation. The bogus self-employed worker who in fact serves one principal, with that principal’s tools and under its instructions, is requalified as an employee at the first inspection, and the social contributions are clawed back from the principal, with interest. Building your business on that model, or letting such workers onto your sites, stacks up an invisible social liability.
SUVA, pensions, liability: the cost of risk
Construction is SUVA’s historic home ground: accident insurance is mandatory there and its premiums, priced on the branch’s real risk, are among the highest in the economy. Budget them from the business plan, alongside occupational pension contributions once salaries pass the legal threshold. Business liability insurance is not required by law, but no project owner hands over a site without it: damage to neighbouring structures or utilities runs into hundreds of thousands of francs.
Depending on the market, performance guarantees and contractual retentions come on top, locking up cash for years: the most underestimated line item of young general contractors. A site’s margin is read after guarantees, not before.
Undeclared work and site inspections
The building site is the most inspected workplace in the Swiss economy. The Undeclared Work Act organises coordinated checks, social security, work permits, source tax, and the joint commissions of the agreements add their own inspectors, verifying wages, classes and working time. On larger projects, professional badge systems identify every worker on site.
For a compliant employer these controls are protection against unfair competition. For an approximate one they are a sanction machine: back payments, conventional penalties, exclusion from public tenders. Administrative discipline, hiring notifications, exact statements, up-to-date personnel files, is a competitive advantage in the literal sense.
Public tenders: the attestations that open bids
A structural share of demand, roads, schools, subsidised housing, runs through public procurement, and access is documentary. To bid, the company produces a set of attestations: social security and pension contributions paid, VAT and taxes current, compliance with the applicable collective agreement, accident insurance in force. Several cantons additionally require a specific labour-standards attestation from the cantonal labour authority.
These documents are prepared before the first bid, not the night before the deadline: one missing attestation eliminates the offer regardless of price. Keeping the file permanently current is exactly the kind of load our administration services for Swiss companies absorb for construction clients.
The pitfalls that sink young firms
The first pitfall is pricing offers with wages below the agreement: the apparent margin turns into conventional penalties and back payments at the first joint inspection. The second is blind subcontracting, without documented diligence, which routes joint liability up to you. The third is bogus self-employment, your own or a subcontractor’s, whose AVS requalification creates a retroactive liability at the principal.
Then come cash flow, eaten by retention guarantees and the sector’s payment terms, and underinsurance against a site claim. As with starting a transport company, the lesson of this series applies here more than anywhere: in inspected trades, compliance is not a file you close, it is an organisation.
FAQ: starting a construction company in Switzerland
Do I need a licence to start a construction company in Switzerland?
Not at federal level: structural building work is free of licence, diploma or register. Two exceptions matter: regulated technical trades, such as electrical installation under the federal ESTI licence, and the canton of Ticino, which requires registration in its LEPICOSC roll for works above CHF 30,000. The real barriers are the binding collective agreements, joint liability and risk insurance.
Which collective agreement applies to a construction company?
Structural work falls under the national agreement for the main construction sector, whose 2026-2031 version was concluded on 12 December 2025 for a record six-year term, with zone-based wage classes and the FAR early-retirement scheme from age 60. Finishing trades fall under binding regional agreements, notably the CCT-SOR in French-speaking Switzerland. The company’s actual activity determines the applicable scale from the first employee.
What is joint liability in Swiss construction?
Under article 5 of the Posted Workers Act, the contracting company answers for its subcontractors’ failure to pay minimum wages, down the whole chain. It can exonerate itself by proving due diligence: wage attestations collected, documents verified, obligations written into contracts. That documentary process is the legal shield of every company that subcontracts.
Can my foreign construction company work in Switzerland without an entity?
Yes, under the posted-workers regime: up to 90 days per company per calendar year, with prior online notification and full compliance with Swiss wages and conditions, checked on site. The route suits a one-off project. For recurring work, a Swiss entity wins: local hiring, tender access, and a footprint project owners can verify in a market where they are jointly liable for their chain.
What insurance does a Swiss construction company need?
SUVA accident insurance is mandatory, with premiums among the highest in the economy, and occupational pension contributions apply from the legal salary threshold. Business liability cover is not legally required but contractually indispensable, and performance guarantees or retentions lock up cash depending on the market. The risk budget belongs in the business plan, not in the first claim.
What do Swiss public tenders require from bidders?
A current set of attestations: social security and pension contributions paid, VAT and taxes in order, compliance with the applicable collective agreement, accident insurance in force, and in several cantons a labour-standards attestation from the cantonal authority. One missing document eliminates the bid regardless of price, so the file is maintained permanently.
Sources
- Swiss Contractors’ Association, National agreement for the main construction sector
- Unia, The 2026 construction national agreement
- Posted Workers Act (SR 823.20), art. 5: joint liability
- FAR Foundation, Early retirement in the main construction sector
- SUVA, Mandatory accident insurance
- Canton of Ticino, LEPICOSC business roll
Conclusion
Starting a construction company in Switzerland is easy; lasting is a matter of discipline. The collective agreement sets payroll from the first worker, joint liability climbs the subcontracting chain to you, SUVA prices the risk, and the site is the most inspected workplace in the country. Founders who build these rules into their prices and processes from incorporation turn the constraint into an edge: they pass inspections, win tenders and sleep at night.
My Swiss Company SA is a Swiss Corporate Services Provider in Geneva, Lucerne and Zug, serving clients in more than 20 countries on company formation and ongoing administration. We structure the incorporation, then run the accounting, VAT and collectively governed payroll of the building trade, with the tender attestation file always ready. To scope your project, talk to us.
