Change of minimum salary
Since January 2023, the minimum monthly wage in Polandis 3490 PLN gross. This amount will increase to 3600 PLN gross by the 1st of July
The newly introduced minimum wage will affect:
1. Minimum benefit base – the base benefit amount cannot be lower than the minimum wage for a given calendar year, reduced by social security contributions financed by the insured individual.
In 2023, the minimum benefit base for sick leave will amount to:
- 3 011,52 PLN – from January 1st to June 30th
- 3 106,44PLN – from July 1st to December 31st
2. Amount of idle time pay– an employee is owed renumeration during downtime, calculated in considering their individual pay grade, specified as an hourly or monthly rate. In cases when such an element of renumeration was not distinguished while discussing employment terms, idle time pay amounts to 60% of renumeration. In any case, the amount of this renumeration cannot be lower than the minimum wage.
3. Maximum amount of severance pay which may be paid out to employees – in cases where the employment relationship is terminated for reasons not attributable to the employee.
The amount of severance pay cannot exceed the fifteenfold of the minimum wage, established by separate provisions, effective on the day when the employment relationship is terminated.
4. Limiting the amount of severance payments during epidemics – Article 15g of the Anti-Crisis Shield provides that if, during the period of an epidemic emergency or a state of epidemics declared due to Covid, the employer experienced a decrease in economic turnover or a significant increase in the burden on the wage fund; the amount of severance pay; compensation or other monetary benefit paid by such employer to an employee in connection with the termination of an employment contract, if the regulations provide for the obligation to pay the benefit; may not exceed 10 times the minimum wage.
5. Amount of night shift differential pay– employees performing night shifts are entitled to bonus renumeration for each hour worked at night, amounting to 20% of the hourly rate whicharises from the minimum wage, established by separate provisions.
Change of indexation rate
The indexation rate changes per quarter for employees opting for rehabilitation benefits. The indexation amount of the sickness benefit basis for the next quarter is announced by the Chairman of the Social Insurance Institution (ZUS) via the Polish Monitor, no later than on the last day of each quarter.
Indexation of the base rate for sickness benefits is performed after a 6-month benefit period, with sick pay taken into consideration, if the payment of benefits is to be continued. Indexation consists of increasing the base rate of sickness benefits by the percentage increase of average monthly renumeration for previous quarters.
Change of unused leave compensation coefficient
In 2023, the coefficient value amounts to 20,83 for employees for whom vacation time equivalents are paid out. As for part-time employees, this coefficient is proportionally reduced.
New holiday quota for a given year
With the start of the new year, an employer should summarize leave taken last year and subsequently add new limits for the new year. With the 1st of January, an employee earns the right to a new paid leave limit of 20 or 26 days per year. Employees in their first year of employment at a company have a limit of 1/12th of the leave they are entitled to when starting a new year. Employees receive this 1/12th with each passing month of employment.
Pursuant to Labor Code art. 168, leave unused within the period set in art. 163 of the Labor Code (i.e., within the limit established in the holiday plan or after consulting with the employee) should be provided to the employee no later than by September 30th of the following calendar year.
Holiday plans: The Labor Code sets forth an obligation of creating holiday plans by employers with a functioning workplace trade union organization, which has not abandoned or repealed the creation such a plan. In this case, most employers are not obliged by labor law to create a formal document referred to as the „holiday plan.” Art. 163 of the Labor Code explains that in cases where there is no obligation of creating such a „holiday plan,” the employer sets the dates of holiday leave individually, after agreement with their employee.
Leave on demand
An employer is obliged to give each employee 4 days of leave on dates specified by the employee themselves (art. 167 of the Labor Code). All employees are entitled to such leave during each single year, in the same amount of 4 days. Leave on demand which is not used by the employee within a given calendar year turns into normal overdue leave. The days of this leave lose their specific characteristic of leave on demand with the end of each calendar year. In each subsequent year, an employee acquires the right to 4 days of leave on demand.
Collecting declarations on using days off to take care of a child
Pursuant to Labor Code art. 188 § 1, during a single calendar year, an employee raising at least one child who is not over 14 years of age is entitled to leave for 16 hours or two days, while retaining the right to renumeration.
A declaration on the intent (or lack thereof) to benefit from these parental rights may be submitted by the employee at any time. Usually, this document is provided to the employer at the beginning of employment, or right after childbirth.
There is no need to submit this document to the supervisor for each calendar year. It can be submitted only once. When changing the decision to benefit from these lawful privileges, it is sufficient to submit a new declaration. The employer may adopt a rule of submitting such a declaration with the beginning of the new year.
Important
Recognition of entity as a Social Security (ZUS) benefits payer
The issue of recognizing an entity as a payer of Social Security contributions is associated with various consequences of a formal nature. What’s decisive in this case is the employment status as of November 30th of the previous year.
If, by November 30th, the following amount of people applied to health insurance:
| 20 people or less | Over 20 people |
| The Social Insurance Institution (ZUS) will be the benefits payer for the next year | Benefits will be paid by the employer (benefits: sick pay, care allowance, maternity allowance, compensatory allowance, rehabilitation benefits) |
Changes in the number of people applied to health insurance that took place after Nov. 30th in a given year (or after the first month in which the contributions payer made their first application of people to health insurance), do not have any effect on previously granted authority for determining eligibility to paying out benefits.
Start of a new work time accounting period
At the beginning of the new year, work time for the new year should be verified, and a work time schedule should be established. It is also necessary to verify how working time accounting periods have been regulated in the wok regulations.
According to Labor Code Art. 129 § 4, creating a work time schedule is not required, if:
Important
• an employee’s working time schedule results from labor law, from a notice on working time systems and schedules, or from the employment contract.
• work is performed in a task-based system.
• at the employee’s written request, the employer applies a flexible or individual working time schedule.
Timesheets are not deemed necessary within a „rigid” worktime schedule, where workdays and hours are known in advance and fundamentally remain unchanged. Such a schedule primarily exists in the so-called basic work time system, which involves working 5 days a week while maintaining an 8-hour daily norm, and Saturdays (usually) being free due an established five-day work week.
Timesheets, even in a basic work time system, may prove necessary when introducing shift-based work. Also, hiring a part-time worker with uneven working time distribution requires the creation of such a schedule. The foundation for planning work time for such an employee is a correctly established work time scope (proportionally to the full/part-time contract performed by the employee), applicable during a given work time accounting period.
Non-working day for a holiday falling on a Saturday
Each holiday occurring within the work time accounting period, and occurring on a day other than Sunday, shortens the scope of working time by 8 hours. According to this provision, for each non-working holiday which occurrs on a Saturday, an employer must indicate a non-working day for their employees on an alternative date. In 2023, the Polish holiday which occurs on a Saturday is on November 11th -National Independence Day.
PIT – 2
An employee should submit this document when commencing employment but may also submit it later at any given moment during the year. Once submitted, PIT-2 remains valid for subsequent tax years until it is revoked or withdrawn by the employee.
Since 2023, the group of taxpayers who can submit the PIT-2 form has been expanded. Currently, the PIT-2 form may be submitted not only by employees on employment contracts, but also contractors (contract of mandate, contract for specific work), people undergoing graduate practice, student internships, managers on contracts.
Correction of contributions for Company Social Benefits Funds (ZFŚS)
Employers with fewer than 50 full-time employees are exempt from the obligation to create the ZFŚS. On the other hand, employers with at least 20 employees and less than 50 employees with trade unions are obliged to create the Company Social Benefits Fund, if the company's trade union organization submits a request to this effect.
Resignation from creating Company Social Benefits Fund (ZFŚS) and payment of holiday benefit
An employer who wants to resign from the Company Social Benefits Funds (ZFŚS) and from the payment of holiday benefits, is obliged to introduce the appropriate provisions into workplace documentation:
- in a collective labor agreement – provided that this agreement is in force within a given enterprise.
- in renumeration regulations – under the condition that as of January 1st of a given year, the number of employees in an establishment not covered by a collective labor agreement amounts to less than 50 full-time equivalents, but at least 50 employees counted individually.
In cases where there is no collective agreement, nor the obligation of implementing renumeration regulations, information about resigning from ZFŚS and paying out holiday benefits should be delivered to employees in a manner that is customary within a workplace no later than January 31st. It is also crucial for employees be informed about this fact during each calendar year.
Verification of employment status to State Fund for the Rehabilitation of the Disabled (PFRON)
Pursuant to art. 21 of the Act on Vocational and Social Rehabilitation and Employment of People with Disabilities, contribution to PFRON must be paid by employers who hired at least 25 people in full-time equivalents. The requirement of employing people with disabilities in accordance with a fixed indicator arises with 25 FTEs, and if an employer does not reach this indicator, there is a requirement of making contributions to PFRON. This indicator is 6%, or 2% in some instances.
