The AHV and the welfare state
Bern
Key figures: Walther Stampfli, Hans Peter Tschudi
HLS (German): Old-age and survivors’ insurance (AHV)
Half a century of waiting. With wage labour and longer lives, the old forms of help for the elderly are no longer enough. The idea of an insurance scheme is born in the 1880s, returns among the demands of the 1918 general strike (see the stage) and in 1925 enters the Federal Constitution. But the first law is rejected by the people on 6 December 1931. On the eve of the Second World War almost every industrial country in Europe has an old-age pension; in Switzerland there are only cantonal funds in Glarus, Appenzell Ausserrhoden and Basel-Stadt.
The wartime model. On 20 December 1939 the Federal Council creates an allowance for those who lose wages while doing military service, financed by 4% of wages, half paid by the employee and half by the employer. The system works, and in 1940 the trade unions ask for it to be used for old age too. Federal Councillor Walther Stampfli presses for the rapid introduction of the AHV; in 1945 an expert commission proposes retirement at 65, graduated pensions and compensation funds, and on 20 December 1946 parliament passes the law almost unanimously.
The vote of 6 July 1947. The liberal right launches a referendum, supported by part of the employers and the Catholic conservatives. On 6 July 1947, with a turnout of about 80%, the people approve the law by four to one. Stampfli will regard this vote as the greatest triumph of his career. On 1 January 1948 the AHV comes into force: the first pensions are modest, but for the first time every elderly person has a right, not charity.
Growing with the country (1948–2005). In 1959 the “magic formula” brings the Social Democrats permanently into government, and Federal Councillor Hans Peter Tschudi leads the revisions that raise pensions between 1960 and 1973. Supplementary benefits arrive in 1965, in 1972 the people approve the three-pillar system (AHV, occupational pension funds, private savings) and in 1975 pensions are more than doubled. The tenth revision introduces pensions independent of marital status and credits for child-raising, but raises the retirement age for women to 64 from 2005.
The AHV today. With an ageing population, financing is again at the centre of the debate. On 25 September 2022 the people narrowly accept, with 50.55%, raising the retirement age for women to 65; on 3 March 2024 they approve, with 58.2%, a thirteenth AHV pension proposed by a trade-union initiative, the first initiative of its kind accepted by the people.
Federal Councillor Hans Peter Tschudi, who led the major revisions of the AHV between 1960 and 1973, December 1971
Comet Photo AG, ETH-Bibliothek Zürich, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
Federal Councillor Walther Stampfli, who pressed for the rapid introduction of the AHV, in the 1943 yearbook of the federal authorities
Scan René Hourdry, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
In the lobby of the Federal Palace, 1962: from left Federal Councillor Willy Spühler, National Councillor Rudolf Welter and Federal Councillor Hans Peter Tschudi
Photo Carl Jost, Bern State Archives, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
Payroll contributions to AHV, IV, EO and unemployment insurance from 1948 to 2026, as a percentage of wages (data: Federal Social Insurance Office)
Clino, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0
The Federal Council’s outing to Ticino, 6 July 1972: Nello Celio cuts the cheese, with his colleagues Hans Peter Tschudi and Pierre Graber
Jules Vogt, Comet Photo AG, ETH-Bibliothek Zürich, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0