Poland is known for its delicious pierogi, spectacular mountains and ancient forests. But it’s also home to an increasing number of qualified working professionals open to global and remote work. Let us show you how to hire employees in Poland in a compliant and cost-effective way.
If you’re considering hiring your next candidate in Poland, you’re in the right place. At WorkMotion, we have helped scores of businesses onboard their remote hires, and we have achieved excellent expertise in the country. Our tech solutions and team of experts will make this incredibly easy for you.
Receive process support by an experienced team of experts & pay your talent on time and in their local currency.
Send laptops and other devices to your remote employees in Poland through our platform with just a few clicks.
Calculate net salary in Poland post deductions and compare it with the salary in other countries instantly.
Fast-track your talent onboarding while ensuring 100% compliance with local regulations.
Easily onboard your remote talent in Poland through our Employer of Record (EOR) solution. Our subsidiaries and network partners make this process fast and 100% compliant.
UTC+1
20 days
PLN 4,242 monthly
Polish Złoty (PLN)
13 days
Monthly
With about 500,000 IT workers, Poland is one of the biggest producers of tech talent. Around 20% of all European IT specialists are Polish. Hiring in Poland means saving as much as 77% on the cost of talent while getting access to IT knowledge and experience. A huge number of Polish citizens have now returned to their home country following the pandemic, further increasing the growing pool of talent that’s open to remote work.
Polish people are motivated by unique and challenging projects. Hire in Poland to tap into a market that’s bursting with skills.
Poland has the biggest number of IT professionals in Central and Eastern Europe. The country produces 71,000 IT students and 11,000 IT graduates every year. It also sees a 10% annual increase in software developers.
About 99% of IT specialists in Poland are degree-educated, which is significantly higher than the EU average of 81%. The Polish workforce is one of the best educated and most skilled in Europe.
With an English Proficiency Index (EPI) score of 600 compared to the world average of 500, Polish workers have one of the highest rates of English as a second language in the world. This makes them effective communicators—at work and beyond.
The Republic of Poland is a country located in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces, covering an area of 312,679 square kilometers with a largely temperate climate. Poland borders Germany, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Ukraine, Belarus, Lithuania, and Russia (the Kaliningrad exclave). Its northern border (440 km long) runs along the Baltic Sea coast. *Please note that the official currency is the currency of remuneration when employed through WorkMotion in Poland.
Warsaw
38.24 M
23%
The national holidays mentioned below are valid for the year 2025. Work on Sundays and public holidays is allowed in situations listed exhaustively in the Labor Code, e.g. in the case of shift work, in transport, and during work which is necessary due to its social utility and the daily needs of the population.
Date | Holiday Name | Extra Information |
|---|---|---|
January 1 | New Year’s Day |
|
January 6 | Three Kings’ Day (Epiphany) |
|
April 20 | Easter |
|
April 21 | Easter Monday |
|
May 1 | Labor Day |
|
May 3 | Constitution Day |
|
June 8 | Pentecost Sunday (Whit Sunday) |
|
June 19 | Corpus Christi |
|
August 15 | Assumption Day |
|
November 1 | All Saints Day |
|
November 11 | Independence Day |
|
December 24 | Christmas Eve |
|
December 25 | Christmas Day |
|
December 26 | St Stephen’s Day |
|
NOTE: For regional holidays, it is the employee’s address that determines the regional holiday.
If a non-working holiday falls on a Saturday, the employee will gain an additional day of leave. The employer is obliged to reduce the working time by eight hours (Article 130, Labor Code).
The approximate time for sharing the contract with an employee in Poland ranges from a few minutes to 2 days assuming no special requests or changes to our standard employment contract. Any such requests or changes would need to undergo internal or external review, directly leading to a time delay. If all talent data is available, the contract can be generated immediately.
In Poland, the working time must not exceed eight hours a day and an average of 40 hours in an average five-day working week (Labor Code, Article 129).
Rest Periods
Each week, an employee is entitled to at least 35 hours of uninterrupted rest, including at least 11 hours of uninterrupted daily rest. In the event of a change in the time worked by the employee in connection with a transfer to another shift, in accordance with the agreed working time schedule, weekly uninterrupted rest may be shorter but not less than 24 hours.
The rest referred to in this section should fall on Sunday. In cases of permitted work on Sunday, the rest referred to in this section may fall on another day. If the employee’s daily working time is at least six hours, the employee has the right to a break in work lasting at least 15 minutes, included in the working time. If the employee’s daily working time is longer than nine hours, the employee has the right to an additional break from work lasting at least 15 minutes and when it is longer than 16 hours – the employee has the right to another break in work lasting at least 15 minutes.(Labor Code, Article 133-132).
The weekly working time including overtime must not exceed an average of 48 hours in the assumed settlement period. The amount of overtime work performed in relation to the specific needs of the employer must not exceed 150 hours during the calendar year (Labor Code, Article 131).
Overtime is paid at the statutory rate of 200% of the employee’s regular pay if the overtime is worked at night, on Sundays, or on non-working days. The pay rate for overtime work is 150% of the employee’s regular income if overtime is performed at any other time. Overtime work is also compensated through paid time off (Labor Code, Article 151).
The employer keeps records of the employee’s working time for the purpose of correctly determining remuneration and other work-related benefits. The employer makes these records available to the employees at their request (Labor Code, Article 149).
The employment contract for a probation period (umowa o pracę na okres próbny), not exceeding three months, is concluded for the purpose of assessing the employees’ performance and the possibility of employing them to perform a specific type of work.
The parties may agree in the employment contract for a probation period that the contract is extended by the period of leave as well as for the duration of another justified absence of the employee from work, if such absences occur.
An employment contract for a trial period is concluded for a period not exceeding:
One month when the planned period of employment is less than six months;
Two months when the period of employment is from six to 12 months.
The parties may extend the periods referred to above in the employment contract for a trial period once however, not for more than one month, if it is justified by the type of work.
The employer has the right to enter into a probationary period contract for a second time only if an employee performs work of a different kind (Labor Code, Article 25).
The termination notice for employment contracts for a probation period depends on the length of the probation period:
| Duration of Probation period | Notice Period |
| Less than 2 weeks | 3 working days |
| 2 weeks to 3 months | 1 week |
| More than 3 months | 2 weeks |
The period of termination notice for employment contracts for indefinite and fixed periods of time depends on the duration of employment with a given employer:
| Duration of employment | Notice Period |
| Less than 6 months | 2 weeks |
| 6 months – 3 years | 1 month |
| More than 3 years | 3 months |
Workers acquire the right to their first annual leave (equivalent to 1/12 of the annual leave available after completing one year of work) upon completing one month of work. The amount of annual leave is:
All workers are covered by compulsory sickness insurance. Sick pay is financed by the employer. It is payable to the employee for the first 33 days of incapacity to work in a calendar year (for the first 14 days, if the employee is aged 50). The right to sick pay is acquired by employees only after 30 days of uninterrupted insurance (the qualifying period).
The total duration of parental leave for both parents is 41 weeks (in the case of giving birth to one child at one birth) or up to 43 weeks (in the case of multiple births). Within its framework, the non-transferable part was defined as nine weeks for each parent. For the entire period of parental leave, 70% of the allowance base is granted as parental leave allowance.
Female workers have the right to a maternity leave of 20 weeks for a child, increasing progressively up to 37 weeks for five or more children in a delivery.
The amount of the maternity allowance is 100% of the calculation basis for the period corresponding to the period of maternity leave. The payments are funded through employee contributions to the Social Security System (ZUS).
The length of paternity leave is equal to two weeks and the worker receives 100% payment of the average. It is funded through employee contributions to the Social Security System. It is also paid to foster and adoptive fathers.
Paid leave is provided for the following reasons:
| Leave | Days |
| Personal reasons like marriage, the birth of a child, and the funeral of a family member. | 2 days |
| Wedding of a child or the death and funeral of a sibling, in-laws, grandparents, or a person dependent on the worker or under their direct care. | 1 day |
| Training leave to improve qualifications on the initiative of the employer or with the employer’s consent. | 6 to 21 days as per the qualifying exam. |
Unpaid leave is granted at the worker’s written request (the leave is not included in the employment period which is the basis for employee benefits). Notwithstanding the foregoing, the employer may, at the worker’s written consent, grant them unpaid leave.
The amount of childcare leave is up to 36 months before the child has reached the age of six years. In order to use the leave, a worker must have an employment duration of at least six months. While on childcare leave, workers are not entitled to any wages or benefits but are covered by retirement and health insurance which is paid by the employer.
The Social Insurance Institute (ZUS) collects all the social insurance contributions and forwards them to the appropriate institutions. Employer contributions to government funds cover retirement, disability, accident, and sickness insurance. *Up to the cap of PLN 177, 660.
The health insurance contribution percentage is 9% and it is paid only by the employees. There are exceptions regarding the contributions for disabled, annuitants, and pensioners. The National Health Fund regulates health benefits. Poland has a mixed system for public and private health care financing.
The accident insurance benefits described are the Employment injury pension or the occupational disease pension and a One-off payment (jednorazowe odszkodowanie).
Contributions to disability insurance are financed by both the employer and employee
In the case of an employer’s insolvency, all claims of workers, previous workers, and their surviving dependents are guaranteed by the employee benefits fund (Fundusz Gwarantowanych Świadczeń Pracowniczych – FGSP).
Employees who have worked at least 365 days in the last 18 months and have been paid the minimum wage may be entitled to an unemployment allowance.
Contributions to pension insurance are financed in equal parts between the employer and the employee (9.76% of the contribution base each). Retirement schemes are mandatory in Poland for all workers.
Employee Capital Plans (Pracownicze Play Kapitałowe, PPK) are a long-term savings scheme in which the employee’s private savings are contributed to by the employee, employer and the state. The main objective of PPK is to provide its participants with funds for when they stop being professionally active. Funds accumulated in a PPK account can be withdrawn at any time. An employer is obliged to enroll its employees for the PPK according to the following rules: Employees aged 18-55: automatic enrollment; Employees aged 55-70: upon an employee’s individual request, provided that their length of service with a given employer is a minimum of three months over the last 12 months; Employees over 70 years of age: cannot be enrolled. The employer is mandated to contribute 1.5% of the salary plus 2.5% voluntarily towards PPK.
