Work and Gender
Migros employs tens of thousands of women and mothers. It would be very hard to think of Migros without female employees. At Migros, full-time employment, many years of service and extensive professional experience are therefore not male preserves, as they are elsewhere. As the gender, employment and age structures at Migros show, that leads to greater, true equality.
Gender structure
Migros is feminine. In 2010 50'723 women and 32'893 men were employed in the Migros Group, which means that the percentage of women in the Migros Group was around 61%. On average for the economy as a whole, the percentage of women in employment is around 45%. In the three business units Cooperative Retailing, Commerce and Travel, in which over 82% of all Migros workers are employed, the percentage of women is actually between 68% and 72%. Migros therefore plays a major role in the employment of women. A broad range of family policy measures and benefitsexists to support and promote an appropriate balance between career and family. Migros has therefore adopted a forward-looking policy, because to overcome the economic and demographic challenges it is generally recognised that raising the level of participation by women in employment will play a key role.
Chart Gender structure
Employment structure
Employment level
At Migros, full- and part-time employment go hand in hand. Against the trend on the Swiss labour market, where the tendency is away from full-time and towards part-time employment, the ratio of full- to part-time employment at Migros has remained stable.
Chart Employment level
Employment level
Full- and part-time employment by gender
For Switzerland as a whole, the percentage of women among full-time employees has stalled at just below 30%. At Migros, this percentage is over 42%. Nevertheless, part-time working is still an important factor for the participation of women in employment and the compatibility of career and family. That is evident from the disproportionate rise in the employment ratio of women with children under 15.
Chart Full- and part-time employment by gender
Part-time employment ratio
Part-time workers at Migros are also predominantly women. While only one in ten men in Switzerland does part-time work, the percentage of men in part-time employment at Migros, taken across all age groups, rose to 21.5% in 2010. At Migros, therefore, this figure is roughly double the average for Switzerland.
Chart Part-time employment ratio
Age structure
Distribution by age groups
The trend up to the end of 2010 indicates that the age structure at Migros is relatively balanced. The age of approximately 50% of employees is below or above the average age of 39.5 years. This age structure encourages and supports intergenerational cooperation, which forms a key element of the corporate culture.
Chart Distribution by gender
Distribution by age groups
Comparative age structure
By contrast with the Swiss national average, Migros has a lot fewer employees in the 41-54 age group and a lot more employees in the 55-64 age group. The significantly higher proportion of older employees indicates the increasing significance of these workers in the economy and society. Migros makes allowance for this trend by operating an age-appropriate system of personnel management.
Chart on employee distribution by gender
Comparative age structure
By contrast with the Swiss national average, Migros has a lot fewer employees in the 41-54 age group and a lot more employees in the 55–64 age group. The significantly higher proportion of older employees indicates the increasing significance of these workers in the economy and society. Migros makes allowance for this trend by operating an age-appropriate system of personnel management.
Chart Comparative age structure
Percentage per length of service group by gender (Chart)
Members of staff remain loyal to Migros. About 60% of men and 59% of women have worked at Migros for more than 5 years. Men stay at Migros for less time than women: the percentage of women in the median length of service groups (6–9 years and 10–20 years) is around 47%, but for men only 42%. With these figures, Migros differs substantially, both in terms of quantity and quality, from the Swiss national average: on average only 52.2% of employees have been working at the same company for more than five years. And men stay at the same company for longer than women – 55.4% of men, but only 48% of women.
Percentage within length of service group by gender (Chart)
The fact that the percentage of women at Migros is disproportionately high, both for each length of service group (reference point: total number of women) and also within the individual length of service groups (reference point: total number of all men and women), shows that at Migros, which employs over 30'000 women with children, women do not in principle have to interrupt their employment to bring up their children and only then resume their working life. Women at Migros therefore have considerably more, not less, professional experience. These factors result in greater equality in working life, and preclude employment-biographical wage differences.