Poland
Poland’s a great place for hiring remote talent. If you’ve found someone you’d like to hire in Poland, read on—we’ll teach you how to do it without running into red tape, expensive fees, and lengthy processions of paperwork.
Country snapshot
CURRENCY
Polish Zloty (PLN)
EMPLOYER TAXES
19.48% - 22.14%
PAYROLL FREQUENCY
Monthly
OFFICIAL LANGUAGE
Polish
It’s the fastest way to hire globally
Hiring employees takes months, at the minimum. When you hire with Thera's locally-generated contracts, it’s a matter of days or weeks. This means you can hire the best talent, fast, without losing them to a hellish procession of paperwork.
It’s a lot cheaper
It costs just $0 to sign up for Thera, then $25 per month to hire your contractors with Thera. If you hired employees manually (or did contracting on your own), you’d likely be on the hook for thousands of dollars each month. Setting up an entity alone can cost tens of thousands of dollars.
It’s more flexible for you & your team
Can be less risky than hiring employees
Hiring employees is a bigger commitment, and can open you up to increased liabilities and regulations. When you hire contractors overseas, your biggest risk is misclassification—but laws surrounding contractor classification are often significantly more straightforward.
Some people want to be employees
The contractor life isn’t for everyone—some people want the security that being an employee often appears to provide. Though it’s rare, this does happen, and it’s one disadvantage of manage an all-contractor team.
You might not have as much control over your talent
Most countries’ contractor-employer relationship laws stipulate that the employer can’t set fixed working hours, among other things. These laws give contractors more freedom over how and when they do their work than an employee would have. In reality, however, most contractors are willing & able to work on the company’s schedule—it’s a matter of setting expectations beforehand.
No matter where you’re based out of, we can tell you one thing: Poland has different labor laws than your home country (unless your home country is Poland, that is). If you don’t do things right, you’ll be putting your company at the risk of fines—and risk losing the talent you brought onboard. Fortunately, doing things right is pretty easy if you take the right route.
Hire talent as contractors
Hire talent as employees
If you’ve read up until this point, you’ll know that it’s easier, cheaper, and more flexible to hire contractors in Poland than employees. Still, there are valid reasons why you might want to hire employees instead. The content below is for you—we’ll cover employer taxes and obligations in Poland
Employer tax
Retirement Pension
Pension
Disability
Labor fund
Guarantee Employee Benefits Fund
Individual tax
- Up to 85,528 PLN - 17%
- Over 85,528 PLN - 32%
Paid Time Off (PTO)
A full-time employee is entitled to 20 days of paid annual leave per year if employed with the same employer for less than ten years.
An employee is entitled to 26 days of paid annual leave once they have been in the same employment for more than ten years.
Unused annual leave days can be transferred to the following year but must be taken by September 30 of the following year. It is forbidden to pay employees for not taking their leave, except upon termination of employment.
Public Holidays
13 public holidays.
Sick Days
Sick leave pay varies based:
- For employees that are 50 years of age or less – up to 33 days in a calendar year paid by the employer
- From the 34th day onward, sick leave is paid by the Social Security Office (ZUS)
- For employees that are 50 years of age or above – up to 14 days in a calendar year paid by the employer
- From the 15th day onward, sick leave is paid by the Social Security Office (ZUS)
- Sick leave is paid at 80% of the allowance basis or 100% of the allowance basis if the illness occurs during pregnancy or if it was caused by the accident on the way to or from work.
- Sick leave caused by the accident at work or due to the employee’s sick child or another sick relative is financed by ZUS.
Maternity Leave
Mothers are entitled to 20 weeks of maternity leave and can take up to 6 weeks prior to giving birth. Mothers are entitled to maternity leave regardless of the length of service with the current employer.
In addition, parents are entitled to 32 weeks of parental leave that can be granted to any of the parents. The leaves are at a rate of 100% for the first 26 weeks and at a 60%rate for the remaining weeks paid by the Social Security Institution (ZUS).
Employees that use both maternity leave and parental leave will receive an 80% allowance for the entire leave.
Paternity Leave
Parents are entitled to 36 months of unpaid leave until the child reaches the age of 6.
Parental Leave
Child leave – 2 days or 16 hours to take care of a child that is 14 years old or less.
2 days leave for: employee’s child’s birth.
1 day leave for: employee’s child’s wedding.
Other Leave
Disability Leave: A person classified as having a severe or moderate degree of disability is entitled to an additional ten days of annual leave.
Military Leave: Employees are entitled to unpaid military leave to perform their duties.
Marriage Leave
The employee is entitled to leave of 1 day for the marriage of his or her child.
Bereavement Leave
The employee is entitled to leave of 1 day for the death and funeral of his or her sister, brother, mother-in-law, father-in-law, grandmother, grandfather or any other person supported or directly care for by the employee.
Termination Process
Employment can be terminated by:
- Mutual agreement
- a ‘statement of will’ of one of the parties with a period of notice (termination of a contract of employment with notice)expiry of the contract term
- The employment contract may be terminated by mutual consent at any time
Notice Period
Notice during the probation period:
3 working days’ notice – if the probationary period is up to 2 weeks;
1-week notice – if the probationary period exceeds 2 weeks;
2 weeks’ notice – if the probationary period exceeds 3 months;
Notice for Temporary or Permanent employment:
2 weeks – if the employee was employed for up to 6 months;
1 month – if the employee was employed more than 6 months and less than 3 years;
3 months – if the employee was employed for 3 years or more.
Severance Pay
Severance Pay Severance payment is given by employers who have at least 20 employees and the dismissal of the employee is through the fault of the employer.
1-month severance pay – less than 2 years of employment.
2 months’ severance pay – between 2 and 8 years of employment.
3 months’ severance pay – over 8 years of employment
Probation Period
No longer than 3 months.
Working Hours
Full time employment is considered 8 hours per day and 40 hours per week.
Overtime
Hours worked above 8 hours per day and 40 per week are considered overtime. Weekly working hours including overtime cannot exceed 48 hours. Annual overtime cannot exceed 150 hours.
Employees will be compensated for overtime as follows:
200% for overtime work performed:
- at night.
- on Sundays and holidays other than the employee’s working days.
- on a non-working day granted to an employee in exchange for work performed on a Saturday or a holiday.
150% for overtime work performed:
- on any day other than those referred to in subsection.
Instead of paying for overtime employers may grant the employee time off work.
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