The three pillars are often presented as three piggy banks stacked on top of each other: the state, the employer, you. The image is convenient and misleading. The three pillars are distinguished not by who pays but by what they are meant to achieve — and two of them are not only about retirement.
The system is set out in the Federal Constitution, whose Article 111 provides that retirement provision rests on three pillars: the federal old-age, survivors' and disability insurance (AHV/IV, AVS/AI), occupational pension provision and individual provision.
First pillar: covering basic living needs
The AHV/AVS old-age and survivors' insurance and the IV/AI disability insurance form the first pillar. The Constitution is explicit about their aim: pensions must cover basic living needs appropriately. The point is therefore not to maintain your standard of living but to secure a minimum.
The insurance is compulsory. People in gainful employment pay contributions from 1 January after their 17th birthday; people not in gainful employment pay from 1 January after they turn 20, with a minimum annual contribution.
In 2026, the minimum full old-age pension is CHF 1'260 a month and the maximum CHF 2'520, with a ceiling of CHF 3'780 for a married couple. These amounts are adjusted periodically.
The full name of the first pillar — old-age and survivors' insurance — is a reminder that it is not only about retirement: it also covers disability, through the IV/AI, and death, through survivors' pensions. Indeed, the Constitution provides for supplementary benefits (EL/PC) precisely because the pension alone may not be enough to cover basic living needs.
Second pillar: maintaining your standard of living
Occupational pension provision has a different aim, also set by the Constitution: together with the AHV/IV, it must allow the insured person to maintain their previous standard of living appropriately. The second pillar does not replace the first; it is added to it.
You often read that the first two pillars together aim to provide around 60% of your last salary. The figure does appear in official documents, but it must be read for what it is: an objective, taken from the Federal Council's 1975 dispatch, meant to give substance to the vague terms of the Constitution. It is not a guaranteed entitlement, and the documents that state it acknowledge that it may not be reached.
Who falls under the BVG/LPP, and on which part of the salary
The occupational pensions law (BVG/LPP) does not apply to all incomes. It sets an entry threshold: in 2026, an annual salary of CHF 22'680 from a single employer. Below that, compulsory second-pillar insurance does not apply.
Above it, it is not the whole salary that is insured but the coordinated salary: the portion lying, in 2026, between CHF 26'460 and CHF 90'720. The amount deducted at the bottom — the coordination deduction — corresponds to the portion assumed to be covered already by the first pillar. It is the technical expression of the idea that the two pillars add up. If this calculation gives less than CHF 3'780, as it does for a salary between CHF 22'680 and CHF 30'240, the minimum coordinated salary of CHF 3'780 is insured.
Cover for the risks of death and disability starts on 1 January after the 17th birthday; retirement saving proper starts on 1 January after the 24th birthday.
Like the first pillar, the second provides benefits in the event of disability and death: a disability pension, a pension for the surviving spouse or registered partner, and orphans' pensions. The amounts depend on the rules of the pension fund and on the legal minimums, and cannot be worked out from a general rule.
Third pillar: individual provision
The third pillar is individual and optional. The Constitution instructs the Confederation to encourage it, in particular through tax measures — which explains the nature of pillar 3a: it is first and foremost a tax arrangement, not simply an account.
It is divided into tied provision (3a) and flexible provision (3b). The first is governed by a federal ordinance, with deduction ceilings and withdrawal rules; the second is open and follows ordinary law.
The reference age, and the transition to it
The reference age is 65 for men. For women, the AHV 21 (AVS 21) reform raises it in steps of three months, and the step depends on the year of birth, not on the year of retirement. It is 64 for women born in 1960 or earlier, 64 and three months for those born in 1961, 64 and six months for those born in 1962, 64 and nine months for those born in 1963, and 65 for those born in 1964 or later. The reference age is therefore the same for women and men from the 1964 cohort onwards.
Retirement can be brought forward or deferred, and partial retirement is possible. Women born between 1961 and 1969 who draw their pension at the reference age or later are entitled to a pension supplement on account of the rise in the reference age; its amount depends in particular on the relevant average annual income and on the year of birth. Those who draw their pension early are not entitled to it.
What this article cannot tell you
Your pension cannot be calculated from general information. It depends on your contribution years, your income, any gaps, your family situation, the rules of your pension fund and the date on which you retire.
The amounts quoted here are those for 2026 and are reviewed periodically. For your own situation, the individual account statement from your compensation office and the certificate from your pension fund are the documents that count.