Families tend to raise pay at the very end of the first meeting, slightly embarrassed. Of everything on the list, it is the most practical question. Pitch the salary too low and it ends up costing more: the good butler goes after one season, and whoever replaces him has to learn all over again where the silver lives and which guest takes his coffee black.
This guide sets out household staff salaries in Italy and Switzerland as 2027 approaches, with Monaco, France and London alongside for comparison. Each figure comes with its source and year, and each is the most recent we found in October 2026. If we could not trace a number back to the original document, it is not here.
Household staff salaries: the short version
- Switzerland pays the most for most roles. Morgan & Mallet (2025/26) quote butlers, private chefs and estate managers at CHF 110,000–150,000 a year gross. The legal floor for household work starts at CHF 20.35 an hour (federal standard contract, 2026).
- Italy pays far less on paper. For senior live-in roles in 2026 the national contract sets about €1,612–1,682 a month, allowance included. Butlers, though, are quoted at €3,000–5,000 a month (9Colonne, April 2026).
- Monaco is not far behind Switzerland for formal service. Butlers there are quoted at €90,000–120,000 a year (Morgan & Mallet, 2025/26).
- France is flatter. In the same report, most roles fall between €45,000 and €60,000 a year.
- London pays house managers £55,000–80,000, and where they land in that range depends on whether they live in (Greycoat Lumleys, 2024/25).
Italy: the national contract comes first
Every domestic job in Italy, from the cleaner who comes on Tuesdays to the direttore di casa of a villa on Lake Como, is normally governed by one national agreement, the CCNL for domestic work. The current text was signed on 28 October 2025 by Fidaldo (the federation that includes Assindatcolf) and Domina for the employers, and by Filcams-CGIL, Fisascat-CISL, UILTuCS and Federcolf for the workers. It runs from 1 November 2025 to 31 October 2028.
A national commission at the Ministry of Labour revises the minimums every year. The 2026 table was signed on 11 February and applies from 1 January; the 2027 table is due early next year, and we will update this page when it arrives.
Levels, and where each role lands
The contract has eight levels, from A to DS. Five of them matter in the houses we work in:
- B: general domestic work, table and room service, the garden, driving. Chauffeurs sit here, which tends to surprise them.
- BS: babysitters.
- C: the cook who works independently, shopping included.
- D: roles with real autonomy or charge of others, such as the butler (maggiordomo), the head housekeeper (governante), the head cook, the head gardener and the administrator of the family’s property, the nearest fit for many estate managers.
- DS: the direttore di casa, the closest the contract comes to a house manager.
A couple means two contracts, one for each person, often at different levels. If the line between these roles feels blurred, it usually is; we have written about what a house manager actually does all day.
Minimum pay from 1 January 2026
These are the contract’s floors. Monthly figures are for full-time live-in staff; hourly figures are for staff who live out.
| Level | Typical roles | Live-in, per month | Live-out, per hour |
|---|---|---|---|
| B | Domestic worker, driver, gardener | €983.16 | €7.01 |
| BS | Babysitter | €1,053.39 | €7.45 |
| C | Cook | €1,123.63 | €7.86 |
| D | Butler, head housekeeper, head cook, administrator | €1,404.51 + €207.69 allowance | €9.57 |
| DS | Direttore di casa | €1,474.73 + €207.69 allowance | €9.97 |
Source: Ministry of Labour, 2026 table. Board and lodging are given a conventional value of €6.66 a day: €2.33 for each of two meals and €2.00 for the room. For live-in staff that value is part of pay: it counts towards the thirteenth month and the TFR.
Hours, the thirteenth month and the TFR
Live-in staff work up to 10 hours a day and 54 a week, with at least 11 consecutive hours of rest; live-out staff up to 8 hours a day and 40 a week. Live-in staff have 36 hours of weekly rest, 24 of them on Sunday, and everyone has 26 working days of holiday a year.
The tredicesima, a full extra month’s pay, is due in December, and for live-in staff it includes board and lodging. Each year of service also adds to the TFR, the severance the family owes when the job ends, whatever the reason: the year’s pay, board, lodging and thirteenth month included, divided by 13.5. The employee can ask for up to 70% of it in advance, once a year. Seniority adds 4% of the minimum every two years, up to seven times. Families who forget about the TFR for a decade tend to meet it all at once, usually on the day the cook retires.
Gross and net, the Italian way
This is the detail that catches people out. An Italian family employing domestic staff is not a withholding agent for income tax (not a sostituto d’imposta). It pays INPS contributions every quarter and deducts the employee’s share, but income tax is the employee’s own business, settled in their tax return the following year. So the “net” on an Italian domestic payslip is net of contributions, not of tax. A butler offered “€3,500 net” should do the sums before accepting. The tax return will do them anyway, a year later. A reform making INPS the withholding agent has been discussed, but at the time of writing it was not expected before 2027 (Centro Fiscale, May 2026).
What experienced staff are actually paid
Above the floor the market decides, quietly, and published figures for Italian houses are thin. Below, each role’s contract level sits next to the best indications we found, including the Europe column of the Greycoat Lumleys survey, the yardstick international candidates in Italy tend to use.
| Role | CCNL level | Italy (9Colonne, 2026) | Europe (Greycoat Lumleys, 2024/25) |
|---|---|---|---|
| House manager | DS | Not given | €60,000–100,000 a year, live-in (as “household manager”) |
| Estate manager | D | Not given | €60,000–80,000 a year, live-in |
| Butler | D | €3,000–5,000 a month | €60,000–75,000 a year, live-in |
| Housekeeper | B; D as head housekeeper | About €2,500 a month in Milan, cooking included | €42,000–72,000 a year |
| Private chef | C; D as head cook | €3,500 a month to start, for 40 hours; €6,000–7,000 with an international background | €5,000 a month net; €6,000 for a head chef |
| Nanny | BS; D for a tutor | Not given | €800–1,000 a week net |
| Chauffeur | B | Not given | Not given |
| Couple | Two contracts | From about €5,000 a month | €5,500 a month net, combined |
9Colonne names no source and does not say gross or net. Greycoat Lumleys labels only some of its figures as net, and its Europe column lumps the whole continent together. Treat these ranges as a place to start negotiating. They will not settle one.
Switzerland: federal floors, cantonal rules
There is no national minimum wage in Switzerland. Household work still has a floor of its own, set by the federal standard employment contract for domestic work (NAV Hauswirtschaft, or CTT économie domestique). The Federal Council extended it on 5 December 2025, to run until 31 December 2028, and lifted its minimums by 2% from 1 January 2026. Outside Geneva it covers anyone who works an average of at least five hours a week for the same household. Staff whose main job is looking after children fall outside it.
| Category | Gross per hour, 2026 | Gross per month at 42 hours a week |
|---|---|---|
| Unskilled | CHF 20.35 | CHF 3,703.70 |
| Unskilled, at least four years’ experience | CHF 22.30 | CHF 4,058.60 |
| Skilled, two-year certificate (EBA) | CHF 22.30 | CHF 4,058.60 |
| Skilled, three-year certificate (EFZ) | CHF 24.55 | CHF 4,468.10 |
Source: SECO, NAV Hauswirtschaft information sheet, 2026. Staff paid by the hour also receive a holiday supplement on top (8.33% for four weeks). The federal contract sets pay only; hours, rest and notice come from each canton’s standard contract and the Code of Obligations. Ticino’s cantonal contract, for one, repeats the same minimums.
Geneva
Geneva has its own contract, the CTT-EDom (J 1 50.03), with minimums that are mandatory until 31 December 2026. For a 45-hour week, gross pay over twelve months starts at CHF 4,795.05 a month for staff without qualifications or with under four years’ experience (CHF 24.59 an hour, also the cantonal minimum wage) and rises to CHF 5,222.10 for a gardener with a federal certificate. Board and lodging count towards the minimum at the AVS values in the annex (CHF 33 a day in all), so a live-in employee’s cash pay can sit below the headline figure. Geneva’s contract also covers cooks, gardeners and people who look after children at home.
Charges, tax at source and the thirteenth month
Contributions on household staff start with the first franc. Employer and employee each pay 5.3% for AHV/IV/EO. For unemployment insurance it is 1.1% each, on salaries up to CHF 148,200. On top come compulsory accident insurance with an approved insurer (AHV/IV leaflet 2.06, 2026) and family allowance contributions, which differ from canton to canton. Above a certain salary, an occupational pension is compulsory as well. Foreign employees without a C permit usually have income tax deducted at source by the employer every month. No Swiss law requires a thirteenth salary. It is owed when the contract provides for it, or when it has been paid without reservation for years, so write it down either way.
Butler, chef and estate manager salaries in Switzerland
The Morgan & Mallet report Beyond the Butler (2025/26, built on placements from January 2024 to October 2025) gives these gross yearly ranges:
| Role | Gross per year |
|---|---|
| Domestic or caretaker couple | CHF 120,000–160,000 |
| Estate manager | CHF 110,000–150,000 |
| Butler | CHF 110,000–130,000 |
| Private chef | CHF 110,000–130,000 |
| Chauffeur | CHF 90,000–120,000 |
| Housekeeper | CHF 80,000–120,000 |
| Nanny | CHF 80,000–120,000 |
The report has no Swiss figure for a house manager, so we have not invented one.
Monaco, France and London for comparison
Families with houses in several countries often ask why the same butler costs twice as much in Gstaad as in Tuscany. Rent explains most of it, demand the rest.
| Role | Monaco, € gross a year | France, € gross a year | London, £ a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| House manager | Not published | Not published | 55,000–65,000 live-in; 65,000–80,000 live-out |
| Estate manager | 80,000–130,000 | Not published | Not published |
| Butler | 90,000–120,000 | 45,000–60,000 | 45,000–50,000 live-in; 45,000–60,000 live-out |
| Housekeeper | 45,000–55,000 | 45,000–60,000 | 40,000–43,000 live-in; 40,000–50,000 live-out |
| Private chef | 90,000–110,000 | 45,000–60,000 | 50,000–90,000 live-in; 60,000–120,000 live-out |
| Nanny | 52,000–57,000 | 45,000–60,000 | 35,000–45,000 live-in; 55,000–65,000 live-out |
| Chauffeur | 60,000–90,000 | 45,000–60,000 | 50,000–55,000 |
| Couple | Not published | See below | 75,000–90,000 combined, live-in |
Monaco and France: Morgan & Mallet, Beyond the Butler, 2025/26. London: Greycoat Lumleys Salary Survey 2024/25.
France needs a footnote. Domestic couples are the role most requested there (21% of requests in the Morgan & Mallet report), yet the report prints no salary for them. The agency’s industry report of September 2026 quotes its co-founder, Morgan Richez:
“When we started, a domestic couple in France was 3,000 to 3,500 net a month. Now you need at least 4,500 or 5,000 a month.”
London is a lesson in sources. In the Morgan & Mallet UK table (2025/26), house managers get £70,000–120,000 and butlers £50,000–100,000, well above what Greycoat Lumleys reports for London. Both can be right. They place people with different families.
Live-in or live-out
Live-in staff cost less in cash and more in everything else. In the Greycoat Lumleys London survey a live-out house manager earns £10,000–15,000 more than a live-in one, and a live-out nanny about £20,000 more.
What no table shows is the room. We have seen a very good chef turn down a generous offer because the staff flat looked onto the bins. People judge a live-in post the way they would judge a home. Is there daylight, a proper bathroom, Wi-Fi that actually reaches? A couple may care more about a cottage with its own entrance than about a raise.
What a package usually includes
- Housing and meals for live-in staff, utilities paid. In Italy both have a contractual value that counts towards the thirteenth month and the TFR.
- A car for estate managers and chauffeurs. Private use is negotiated, and usually taxed as a benefit.
- The thirteenth month: compulsory in Italy, contractual in Switzerland.
- Travel: flights home once or twice a year for staff from abroad, and an allowance when travelling with the family.
- Health insurance: in Switzerland basic cover is compulsory and personal, and some families contribute to it.
- Uniforms, a phone and paid training, plus an end-of-season bonus in seasonal houses.
How to read these numbers
- They describe experienced, full-time people in large houses, as seen by the agencies that place them.
- Floors are not the market. A family that offers a seasoned butler the level D minimum will have plenty of time to polish the silver itself.
- Gross and net change meaning from country to country. The Morgan & Mallet ranges are gross; Greycoat Lumleys marks its net figures as net; in Italy, “net” usually means after contributions only.
- The sources are not from the same year. Greycoat Lumleys is 2024/25, Morgan & Mallet 2025/26, the minimums 2026. Italy and Geneva revise theirs every January.
Before you sign anything
This article is general information, not legal or tax advice. In Italy a consulente del lavoro, or the local office of an employers’ association, will draft the contract and run the payroll; in Switzerland a payroll fiduciary or the cantonal compensation office will tell you what applies.
What none of them can tell you is which role your house actually needs. That is where our staff search and training starts, before any salary is discussed. If you are on the other side of the interview, our guide to working in private households covers pay, contracts and live-in terms in more detail, and the Liorènne Register is open to applications. Seasonal contracts often end with closing the summer house properly, which is worth writing into the job description too. For anything specific, write to us.
Sources
- Ministero del Lavoro, 2026 minimum pay agreement (12 February 2026)
- Ministero del Lavoro, minimum pay table from 1 January 2026
- Assindatcolf, CCNL lavoro domestico 2025–2028, full text
- SECO, NAV Hauswirtschaft information sheet, 2026
- Canton of Geneva, CTT-EDom (J 1 50.03)
- Canton of Ticino, domestic staff minimum wages 2026
- AHV/IV leaflet 2.06, household employees, 2026
- ch.ch, tax at source
- Morgan & Mallet, Beyond the Butler 2025/26
- Morgan & Mallet, Household Staff Industry Report 2026
- Greycoat Lumleys, Salary Survey 2024/2025 (PDF)
- 9Colonne, private chefs and domestic staff in Italy (23 April 2026)
- Centro Fiscale, domestic workers and income tax (28 May 2026)