🇵🇱 Hiring in Poland

💡 Everything you need to know to hire and manage employees in Poland through Toku. Toku handles payroll processing, tax withholding, social contributions, and statutory compliance. This guide covers what you need to plan costs and manage your team.

At a Glance

Onboarding a New Hire

Plan for 5-7 business days between submitting a new hire and their start date. Before day one, your new hire must complete a pre-employment medical examination and obtain the medical certificate, and Toku pre-registers them for the mandatory health and safety training that takes place on day one.

Submit your new hire through the Toku platform and we take it from there: local employment agreement, statutory registrations, and payroll setup. See Onboard Contributors as a Client Admin in Toku for the step-by-step process, and the Country Readiness Live Tracker for lead times across all countries.

Employer Costs

On top of gross salary, employers in Poland pay the following:

As a rule of thumb, total cost of employment is roughly 120-124% of gross salary. There is no 13th or 14th month salary requirement in Poland.

Employees pay their own social contributions totaling 22.71% (pension, disability, sickness, and health insurance), a 2% PPK contribution unless they opt out, and progressive income tax of 12% or 32% (with a PLN 30,000 annual tax-free amount, and an exemption for most employees under 26). These are withheld from gross salary, not charged on top. Toku calculates and remits all of the above.

Compensation & Payroll

Toku runs one payroll per month in Poland, paid no later than the 10th of the following month, and employees receive a payslip each cycle. The statutory minimum gross wage is PLN 4,806 per month from January 1, 2026, and from 2026 the minimum must be met through base salary alone, without counting bonuses or allowances. There is no mandatory 13th month payment. Salaries are paid in PLN by bank transfer.

Employment Contracts & Probation

• Toku issues a compliant local employment agreement for every hire, in Polish (bilingual versions are used for foreign employees, with the Polish text prevailing).
• Contract types are indefinite, fixed-term, and probationary. Indefinite is the default.
• Fixed-term contracts are limited to 3 contracts and 33 months total between the same parties; beyond that, the contract automatically becomes indefinite.
• Probation runs under a separate probationary contract of up to 3 months (the statutory maximum), which can be used only once with the same employer for the same type of work.

Working Hours

The standard week is 40 hours over five days (8 hours per day), with a hard cap of 48 hours per week including overtime. Employees are entitled to 11 hours of daily rest, 35 hours of weekly rest, and a paid 15-minute break after 6 hours of work. Overtime is only allowed in exceptional circumstances, cannot be scheduled in advance, and is capped at 150 hours per year; it is paid with a 50% premium (100% at night, on Sundays, or on public holidays) or compensated with time off. Remote workers are entitled to a cost allowance for electricity and internet, which Poland's remote work rules require employers to cover.

Leave Entitlements

Most long-leave costs (maternity, paternity, parental, and sickness beyond the employer-paid period) are funded by the state, not by you. Unused annual leave carries over but must be used by September 30 of the following year, and at least one block of leave must be 14 consecutive calendar days.

Public Holidays (2026)

Poland observes 14 statutory public holidays in 2026, all paid non-working days. If a holiday falls on a Saturday, employees receive an additional day off on another working day.

Benefits: Required vs. Common Extras

Statutory (included in employer costs above): the ZUS state pension, disability and accident insurance, sickness benefits, public healthcare through the National Health Fund, and the PPK supplementary pension plan.

Toku provides 100% employer-sponsored supplemental healthcare in Poland through the Medicover Zdrowie Premium plan. See the Poland Supplemental Healthcare Overview for plan details and enrollment.

Common extras in the Polish market include sport and recreation cards (such as MultiSport, nearly universal among office employers), group life insurance, meal subsidies, PPK employer contributions above the 1.5% minimum, training budgets, and remote work equipment allowances. Most benefits in kind are taxable to the employee; Toku can advise on the cost impact of any benefits you want to add.

Ending Employment

Dismissals in Poland require a specific, real, written reason, which employees can challenge in the Labour Court within 21 days, so documentation and process matter. Involve Toku early, before any conversation with the employee. For the process, see How to Terminate an Employee or Contractor.

Severance is mandatory when termination is for reasons not attributable to the employee (such as redundancy or restructuring) at employers with 20 or more staff: 1 month's salary for under 2 years of service, 2 months for 2-8 years, and 3 months for over 8 years, capped at 15 times the national minimum monthly wage (PLN 72,090 in 2026). Certain groups, including pregnant employees, employees on parental leaves, and those within 4 years of retirement age, have special protection from dismissal.

Hiring Someone from Overseas?

EU, EEA, and Swiss nationals can work in Poland without a permit. Other nationals generally need a Type A work permit, which involves a labor market test and typically takes 1-3 months, though simplified declaration routes exist for citizens of certain countries (including Ukraine, Georgia, and Moldova) and Poland participates in the EU Blue Card scheme for highly qualified workers. Talk to Toku before extending an offer to a candidate who needs sponsorship.

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Last verified July 2026. This guide is for general information and doesn't constitute legal or tax advice. Your Toku account manager can confirm specifics for your situation.