Swiss Rent 3.5 Million Won and Hourly Wage 50,000 Won... 3 Reasons for the Lethal Cost of Living

Switzerland is known as a wealthy country where the average monthly salary exceeds 10 million won and the minimum hourly wage reaches a level of practically 50,000 won. However, for locals, it is also a high-cost country where a significant portion of income is spent due to high rent, taxes, and health insurance premiums. According to a video by Walk Travel, three key factors—resources, economic structure, and topographical characteristics—contribute to the formation of Switzerland's lethal cost of living. The cost structure is so severe that even just breathing results in at least 3.5 million won in rent, and when taxes and health insurance are combined, 6 million won—more than half of a monthly salary—disappears.

The Wage Domino Effect Created by Resource Scarcity and High-Value Industries

While Switzerland possesses stunning natural beauty, it is a country with almost no natural resources like oil or iron ore in its ground. Because it lacked land for farming or resources to consume, Switzerland has focused on high-value-added industries that rely on human technical skills, such as watches, finance, and pharmaceuticals. As these industries generate massive profits, workers' wages have also soared.

The problem is that higher wages lead to an increase in service costs. As workers' wages rose in proportion to the profits earned by companies, labor costs in all service sectors, such as restaurants and cafes, also skyrocketed. Because hourly wages are expensive, a domino structure has formed where that labor cost is fully added to even a single meal or a cup of coffee. This is why it is easy to spend over 100,000 won even at an ordinary restaurant.

The Status of a Permanent Neutral Country and the Cost of Rugged Mountainous Terrain

One of Switzerland's economic characteristics is its status as a permanent neutral country, which it has maintained by avoiding war for hundreds of years. Whenever the global economy is unstable or a war crisis occurs, assets from around the world gather in Switzerland, the safest vault. As demand for the Swiss currency explodes, its value continuously rises, which results in even higher exchange rates and prices felt by foreign travelers.

Topographical factors are also a major culprit for the rising cost of living. The rugged mountainous terrain that provides the magnificent scenery of the Alps incurs massive costs for infrastructure construction. The cost of drilling tunnels through sheer cliffs and installing and maintaining cable cars at an altitude of 2,000m is beyond imagination. The video explains that the 60,000 to 70,000 won spent on public transportation for an entire month in South Korea can be consumed in just 10 minutes in Switzerland by the price of a single one-way gondola ticket to climb one mountain. In this way, the structure is such that just a few uses of transportation can cause tens of millions to hundreds of thousands of won to evaporate in a day.

Grindelwald Chalet Accommodations and Characteristics of Using Swiss Railways

A traveler begins their full-scale journey by flying from Dubrovnik Airport in Croatia and arriving at Zurich Airport. It takes about 1 hour and 50 minutes from Croatia to Zurich. Swiss railways have high punctuality and convenience, but due to the influence of the mountainous terrain, many trains operate at speeds around 180 km/h and are characterized by very frequent transfers. However, because the transfer system is perfectly organized, one can move conveniently by transferring immediately. Additionally, most Swiss railways operate on a free-seating basis, so seats are not assigned and conductors perform ticket inspections frequently.

Travelers can utilize the 'Swiss Travel Pass,' which allows free use of public transportation for 6 days. According to the case in the video, this pass was purchased for about 760,000 won when the franc exchange rate was 1,900 won. This shows a significant difference compared to the 110,000 won cost of a 7-day Naeilro pass in South Korea.

Grindelwald, the base for this trip, is an Alpine mountain village at an altitude of over 1,000m. The traditional wooden houses here, called 'Chalets,' were once mountain huts where shepherds stayed during the summer in high altitudes, but they have now become a representative residential form of the Swiss landscape. In the case of well-located chalets, the price can exceed 700,000 won per night, and the participant in the video faced the scenery of Eiger, Mettenberg, and Schreckhorn by paying approximately 2.8 million won for 4 nights of accommodation. The participant shared that the worry about the high cost disappears thanks to the magnificent mountain scenery unfolding outside the accommodation window.