Average monthly salary in Poland is around 1000 PLN (few hundred bucks).

Poles earn much more than You've written. average net salaries are between 1500 and 3000 zlotys per month. minimum net wage is 980 zlotys per month(2010 year) and this amount is earned by only 10% employees(generally cleaning stuff, dustmen etc.). If you have good qualifications you can earn more than 3000 zlotys, however if your qualifications are poor I cannot expect more than 1500 zlotys!!

Best you teach english at school or private lessons and earn 6000zl a month.

ffs!I've got no bloody idea where do you get this information from.minimum net wage is 980?hahaa how do you know that, 2010 has just began and you already know how much they're gonna pay us?LOL

And of course it is only earned by 10% of polish people,another 10% is on the dole!And another 10% earns even less! And believe me, Beck's, not cleaning stAff earns that much money. I'll tell you something.I'm currently looking for a job. I've graduated from Uni, last year. I was looking for a job in teaching.They offer 1276 zlotys , which is net sth round 850zl.PER MONTH. A job offer, secretary. Expectations: At least Bachelor's degree, perfect english, some courses done of accountancy.max pay 1317.minus all the taxes and everything...1000zl. I've got all that and a company wants to pay me 1000 zlotys.for 40 hours of my hard work.5 days a week.Poor qualifications you say?LMAO.


Honestly, mate-PMSL.

There are dedicated websites to compare salaries. One I found very helpful is SalaryExplorer.com . hope it helps. regards

You mean minimum I guess? It's rougly over 1200 PLN
The average is now over 3200 PLN

Gross or net? Gross for sure I'd say

3200 PLN after taxes?

no way.

i know people in the 27-35 year old range, master's degree, and they're landing jobs that pay 2000 net. considering what teachers, police officers, construction workers, shop keepers, waitstaff, bus/tram drivers, even what nurses earn in Poland........

imagine what the rest are making that do not live in a major city.

I know a teacher, master's degree, 29 years old, working in a town of 50,000 people, she takes home 1200 net a month.

GUS tends to back him up, FUZZY, but you just can't tell what goes on in those administrative centres.

Teachers - easily over 2000zl a month net when you add in private lessons. They also get the "13th month" paid and (after a while) become immune from being sacked because of poor performance in teaching.

Can't comment for the police, but they have a very generous early retirement scheme that more than outweighs salary concerns. Ever wonder why there are no old plod going about?

Construction workers can earn good money if they're good at the job.

Waiting staff - again, there's easily 2000zl a month there in a good job. They won't get that in a poor job, but why should waiting staff get more than minimum wage for an unskilled job?

Bus/tram drivers? I saw an advert today for a bus driver, 2200zl brutto. Not bad at all.

Anyone landing a job in the 27-32 range earning 2000zl a month net (if with ZUS paid) isn't doing too badly - someone 27 will likely only have 2-3 years experience at most.


She's also got the ability to give private lessons, she'll be unsackable in a few years and also has the option of going into exam marking, book writing and more. Teachers with a bit of initiative and drive really don't do too badly in Poland - and let's not forget, unlike in other countries, teachers in Poland are only obliged to be in school when they're timetabled to be there - and they don't work full days.

Why giving net amount? It changes depending on many factors and it is easy to know how much is net from a gross number. I'd say only blue collar people use net terms only when talking about earnings, as it is easier for them.

About the teacher: she should earn more - ask her how many hours she is working. My friend in similar position earns >3000 but works hard.

The average may be confusing but it is stathistics. Sure many of our friends (or us) around don't reach the average which sounds depressing. But to understand it you must check the method of preparing this stathistics. Or treat it as irrelevant:)

Average, not median.

minimum wage works out to about 1300 a month, or 8 an hour.

kariera.pl has lots of jobs posted with salaries.

Sounds like either she isn't very good or she teaches a hugely unpopular subject. A very good friend of mine is currently teaching her third year since graduating from her Magister course, she's in a town of 100,000 people and takes home a little more than 2,000zl a month.

It's worth noting that many what would be minimum wage jobs elsewhere, aren't minimum wage jobs in Poland. Take supermarkets - in most of the world, these are minimum wage jobs. In Poland? Not so.

I thought they are? Or even lover as they often work more hours than paid...

There are some data about mean wage:


Median of month pay was 3 425 gross.
Half of employees were between 2 300 and 5 500 PLN gross.

But remember gross is not fully loaded - you must add ca 20% ZUS.
And on the other hand: from 5500 gross you have only ca 3500 net.

delphiandomine wrote:


i'd love to comment pappy, but I'm still waiting for you respond to you know what.

The topic is "average monthly salary in Poland is around 1000PLN (few hundred bucks)".

Because it's you Landora.

here goes....I'll contribute.....just to set an example:

Delphiandomine wrote:



"not bad" you say. so if a family of 4 is taking home 4400zl while living in a major city, you think that's "doing ok"? Nice and comfy? More like lots of bread and Goracy Kubek with everyone stuffed inside a 45 sq. meter apt.

Livin' the dream Delph. Livin' the dream.

I swear, if Poland cheated on you Delph, burned your house down, put scorpions in your shoes and fire ants in your underwear, took everything you had after the divorce trial and wiped its a$$ with your favorite shirt, you'd still be begging her to come back.

If you're earning less than average wage, you can hardly expect to have "nice and comfy" living circumstances. I'm not sure why you think that they should have anything special - if they can't be bothered to earn for it, then they deserve a small flat. I don't suppose you know much, if anything (your ignorance shows here) about the Polish labour market, but any sort of professional couple who have "specialist" job titles should be taking in at least 5000zl in a major city, if not more.

You shouldn't listen to Polish people so much - it's a national trait to tell everyone how badly paid you are and forget to mention all the money made on the black market.

As I've said up there, any sort of teacher with a few years experience should be taking in at least 2500-3000zl a month in a major city if they put the work in. And this is in a profession where salaries are regulated. I've been hearing in Poznan, IT companies have got so desperate to the point where 3500/4000zl salaries are being offered to fresh graduates with the right skills. I know you probably don't pay attention to this kind of thing, but try looking at the cars that middle managers are driving. They're not company cars, and they're not bad cars either. Wonder why? Or you can even ask yourself why even schools in "poor" towns are still doing well - if they were truly earning what they declare, they wouldn't be able to drop 200+ a month into lessons.

Incidentally, one big reason you see families in small apartments is simply financial - banks have and always will demand large deposits for a mortgage. What's the point in throwing money down the drain renting a bigger flat if you're saving up for a mortgage on a decent sized place?

Anyway, the new poor in Poland will be native speakers of languages - just like has happened in many other Western countries.

There are plenty of people living 4 to a 45sqm flat, sure. But equally so, there's plenty of old people out there living 1 or 2 to a huge old flat. Take a trip to Poznan Jezyce sometime and look round - plenty of 90-100+ apartments being occupied by 1 person.

Delphiandomine wrote:


oh you're right. definitely. i surely don't. what was i thinking. stellar observation.

Delphiandomine wrote:


right again! what was I thinking Delph, making my observations based on the testimonials of thousands of working class Poles from every profession imaginable here in Poland over the years. truly useless information. I should consider listening to you or some BS index or crap statistic off the internet.

I could go all day on your absurd posts, but as always, because you're my boy, I will of course have to mention that you avoided my questions again. It just cracks me up how you blatantly refuse to answer them. I knew you were hiding something from the beginning, but now you've essentially proved it to everyone. You really are a Nancy. What color skirt today, Delph? Maybe something with Polka dots?

At this point, I'm embarrassed for you.

I have lived here for quite some time now and i have always wondered what these statistics mean to the ordinary folk here in Polksa. To me they don't make sense so i need a bit of enlightment here. I used to read Poland Monthly before it went Bust. I remember quite well in January2009 reading that the central statistics office had said that the average Salary in Poland was around 3600zł and the Minimum if i'm not mistaken was around +/- 1400zł. Considering the demographics of this country that more people are scattered around the country in small towns and villages than in large cities i found this hard to believe. I move around in the small towns and villages and what i have found is that no one is willing to offer any employee a wage above the national minimum. So i just wonder where these statistics come from coz many people in this country are struggling to survive on the +/- 1000zł wage. If i tell them about the AVARAGE WAGE in POLSKA They are all dumbfolded by such estimates some say its meant for foreign investors willing to invest in the country but far from the harsh realities of everyday life.

Average monthly salary is not good measure. Better is median salary.
So maybe average is about 3200 PLN gross, but median is about 2500 PLN gross. Which means that half of working population is getting less than 2500 PLN gross and the other half is getting more. Of course it don't count untaxed money...

So to conclude, those of you who argue that salaries in Poland are easily above 3000 gross because you know plenty of people who get that much are just speaking about the wealthier half.. In the same time, those of you who think that almost everybody in Poland gets 1000 are just know mostly people from the second half..

By the way, title of this thread is misleading because neither average nor median salary in Poland is 1000. But it is close to minimum salary.

If you're meeting working class Poles, it explains why you think everything is doom and gloom in Poland - those without the ability to get themselves into the new middle class in Poland are very bitter people, even in progressive places like Poznan and Wroclaw. Hardly a day goes by without reading some more moaning from people that are too lazy and stupid to better themselves - yet in the most part, they're earning minimum wage because of their own issues.

And as I've said - middle class workers very often have 'other' sources of income.

Minimum wage working is understandable in places with dire unemployment problems like in Lubuskie, but in major cities, there really is no excuse whatsoever to earn minimum wage.

Anyway, when are you going to stick to the topic?

That's about the average for PL as a whole. In Warsaw the average is about 5500zl, though I imagine the median is lower, about 3.5k, perhaps a little more. The discrepancy between public and private sector workers is large, and will affect the median in Warsaw. I got the 5.5 figure fro a friend in the tax office, who earns less than that.

What makes it bad is that retail prices really seem to be rising.

jonni wrote:


prices in Poland for basically everything excluding eggs and bread is pathetic. anything imported is out of reach for the avg. pole which means they're all stuck to products "Made In Poland" or driving a 10 year old imported car with the wheels falling off. And spare me the comment about how so many Poles are driving nice cars. Every country has people with money driving nice cars. For the most part, Poland is full of beaters.

real estate is the biggest joke of all.

i certainly was on topic, with the addition of "Delph, you're a Nancy for refusing to answer my questions and everybody knows it."

you've left me with no choice. i'll have to answer the questions for you.

Where were you born? outside of europe I'd say. if I were to guess, I'd say you've been moving for most of your life.

What is your native language? Not English. You don't have a native language because you've never been in a country long enough to truly develop one. When I first started reading your posts, they were full of simple mistakes, and recently seem to have gotten much better which leads me to believe more than one person types under the name "Delphiandomine".

Do you have Polish blood? Absolutely not. Not a drip. My guess? Asian.

Do you speak Polish? Poorly at best, which is why you never comment on Polish on this forum. No confidence to do so.

How long have you lived in Poland? At best, 18 months, another reason why you don't speak Polish well.

Because you've managed to avoid those questions for so long, I have now given the forum that set of data of which everyone will follow till you prove otherwise.

Lots of love, Delph.

-The Fuzz

Why then plan 2 children if one cannot afford to raise them? Goracy Kubek diet??? :)) Besides, both parents working will actually provide sufficient income. Should plan accordingly. You just made an example, and it can be like that often, but it is not a rule.

Exactly. Children aren't a right, they're a responsibility. A costly responsibility at that.

In a country where a kilo of chicken breasts can be obtained for 13zl in a major city, it's certainly not difficult to live on 4400zl a month. I can make a huge amount of curry for around 15zl - and decent curry as well!

Fuzzy - :)

The funniest thing about this is that you don't realise how many forum members actually know me in person, and furthermore, there's several forum members who know someone I know (Harry, for instance, knows someone else on here, who I know). The fact that you haven't picked up on it says a lot about your own English skills ;)

Tell you what - next expat meeting we have in Poznan, you should come along.

Delphiandomine wrote:


right, because the price of chicken is how you should gauge whether 4400zl a month is decent money or not. something like the incredibly inflated cost of apartments and houses in Poland, that's not worth mentioning. by the way, as far as I know, "chicken" would fall under my "Made in Poland" category. this is such a typical Delphiandomine statement. take one small thing and exploit it to make a point, no matter how insignificant or irrelevant it may be. bravo. well thought out response.

Delphiandomine wrote:


if that's so, then why hasn't anybody filled in the blanks? SO many forum members know you in person, yet nobody can answer any of my questions? ciekawe.

how about you just answer for yourself, Nancy.

for all those alleged "friends" of Delphiandomine, maybe you can give me some concrete answers to my questions to him? after all, he knows so many of you personally....

The price of basic essentials are a pretty accurate gauge. After all, haven't you heard of the Big Mac index? No? Ah...


Basic economics - with foreign investment spiking up prices dramatically, combined with a lack of decent housing stock, you're always going to get high prices for the best places. But as I've said before, many council owned flats, quite large in nature, are owned by those in their 70's and 80's. Once that generation dies out, we'll start to see much more on the market. There's also the Polish mentality that it's better to hold out for a high price than to take something - which doesn't help with the supply of flats.

Houses are available ridiculously cheaply - maybe still expensive compared to $100k villas in Florida, but then again, Poland hasn't seen a huge crash in her banking system due to bad debts. I actually saw one place today, about 50km from Poznan, a decent size (220sqm on one floor) - yours for 250k. We can do basic economics and say that lenders won't lend right now without a 25% deposit, so a mortgage of 187500 means payments of around 1500 a month. If you can't afford that on a 4400zl salary, what are you spending money on?

As for prices being inflated - if the market is able to bear them, and given that the market didn't crash despite the CHF/PLN exchange rate going the 'wrong' way, I'd suggest that the market was actually pretty stable.


Because, in all honesty, people have better things to do than to reply to someone who clearly is in Poland for two reasons -

1. Better standard of life than in America.
2. Chasing some skirt.

No wonder you're trying so hard to convince everyone that natives are better - what else are you going to do when native teachers are seen as pointless, like what's happened in Scandinavia and Germany?