Special bonuses

Eligibility for the granting of bonuses:

  • All EPFL staff, excluding professors, trainees, apprentices, temporary staff, employees with less than 12 months seniority or employees leaving EPFL in September of the current year.
  • EPFL executives, administrative and technical staff, doctoral students, post-doctoral students and scientific collaborators are eligible for bonuses.
  • It is recommended that the different categories of eligible persons be represented within the entity in order to ensure internal equity.

Criteria for awarding bonuses:

  • The bonus is intended to recognize exceptional performance, based on a justification.
  • The bonus is also intended to recognize unique and exceptional work performance that goes well beyond the normal expectations of the job description.
  • A group bonus may also be granted for an exceptional contribution by a team (e.g. project). In this case, the global amount will have to be divided by the number of employees while respecting the minimum amounts indicated below and an individual request will have to be initiated.
  • Bonuses can be granted for a maximum of 2 consecutive years.

Recommendation of bonus amounts:

Amounts vary between CHF 1’000 and CHF 5’000. It is recommended to reduce the amounts by half in case of an activity rate lower or equal to 50%.

Amounts :

  • Assistant professors : CHF 1’000 – 1’500
  • Post-docs : CHF 2’000 – 2’500
  • Admin/ Technical / IT staff : CHF 2’000 – 2’500
  • Executives: grades > 10 : CHF 2’000 – 5’000

Extraordinary salary increase:

In some situations, an ESA may be more relevant than a bonus award, especially when the performance is exceptional over a long period of time.

Granting Procedure:

Human Resources managers inform Deans, Vice Presidents and their units of the procedure to follow and the deadlines for submitting requests. You will find the form to use on our HR Documents and Forms page.