Polish salaries - New statistics

Employees in Poland salaries - New statistics

But:


The dark-blue line is average. The light-blue line is minimum. (zl/month)

Average now is 3601 zl/m.
Minimum is 1386 zl/m.
(brutto)

That minimum wage is very low.
What types of jobs would give that much?

Whta is average take-home pay of the largest single group of Polish wage-earners?

Many make less than 2000 zl/m brutto.

If you have minimum salary you need at least 2 jobs. And many Poles have more than 1 job. It is a really hard life, especially if you have children.

If that. A lot of the bigger employers get around the minimum wage rule by offering 75% contracts.


Or just live below the poverty line :-(

I have a friend who claims he'd be making 3500zl/m instead of the 5500zl/m he's making now if it wasn't for his doctorate.

I don't know how they do it especially in the village where my husband is from. It is a vicious poverty cycle, but what is crazy is you go into a run down 200 year old house with gangs of people living in the house and of course they have a flat screen tv and an expensive front door once one of the neighbours bought an anti teft door they all had to have it and this would be in a village where there would be only about 6 homsteads and a small chuch that only opens for and hour an a sunday. why would they wast there little salary on all the latest nick nacks when money is so tight.

sister act

This phenomenon can be found in many many countries.

For example here North America.

You have families living in shacks or breaking down houses.
Then they have a super expensive car. They have a big screen tv + xbox + computer.
They go to the stores and buy 60 dollar games by the dozens.

These type of people then attend schools and perform really bad. They have no respect
for others or teachers that actually try teaching.
Its disgusting really.

Wow, the salary seems REALLY low in both instances? Doesn't sound like something you could live off of, or am I wrong?

Oh and does anyone perhaps know how much on average doctors in Poland earn (In the public sector). I'm talking, fresh out of Med school doctors, AND specialised in for example, Neurology, or Family Medicine?

Many do. And doctors salaries are so low that qualified doctor sometimes prefer to work as pharmaceutical salesmen because they can earn more.

I have heard that salaries in big cities are about 500-600 euro/month and in small cities about 300-500 euro/month.

The salaries in Poland are low due to low work efficiency/productivity. The second chart shows it:

I think this chart is quite misleading. It doesn't take into account that the population is quite evenly spread throughout the country- those of us who live in cities have a different income that those in smaller towns and villages. And the fact that the cost of living is much higher in cities.

It doesn't take into account people that have kept ownership of their apartments after communism fell. The pay very low property taxes and fees- yet basically own their apartments outright so they have more disposable income.

So even if a person makes 2200 pln per month but doesn't pay a mortgage- they may have more cash available than somebody that earns 8000 pln but has a mortgage and car payment.

That's very sad and soooo wrong :)

This is no way to live but what can they do? Have no children and be miserable? Leave the country and be miserable? Leave their families to work in another country and be miserable?

Fresh doctors must do internship 12 months, then you only get 1000 zl/m. But it is a mix between education and job. After this 12 months you get more. It depends on where you work. But the salary during the 5-years specialist-training is not much.

Specialist doctor around 4500 zl/m (brutto), but then they have to pay tax. But it depends on several factors, can be a little less or more. If you have very high academic qualifications (e.g. dr. hab.) around 5000-5500 zl/m. But the vast majority of doctors do not have that.

Many specialist doctors also work some "extra hours" in private practice.

in Olsztyn welder takes home 700 euro pcm, electrician 600 euro pcm.

What I wrote above was in medium/bigger cities.

However there are specialist doctors in smaller hospitals who earn as little as 3000 zl/m (brutto).

---------------------

But the average Pole is not a doctor.

If you exclude the "few" people who earn extremely much money, the salary for an "average" Poles are significantly lower than 3600 zl/m (brutto).

that is a big surprise for me! i earn 2700zl to my hand welding(and i dont even speak polish) so for a doctor to earn about the same is shocking really.

Why is their a debate about what people get paid in Poland? They get paid poorly even if they are well qualified.

there is a demand for your work and your customer, usually a big company can buy your work but poor retired babcia can not pay more for doctor's work.

Of course Polish doctors go abroad. They can get several hundred % higher salary.

66.6% for Poland even after two decades of steady growth lol. During communist times it was even lower and the commies claimed to be a 'workers society' yet no one worked. Laborers, people in manager and administrative positions drank vodka. btw 177.5 for Luxemburg what are the they elves in a workshop?

Yes, it is interesting how low the efficiency in communism had to be if it has risen by about 10% every year for the last dozen years or so and is still 66%.

It means we need to learn how to organize our work time efficiently. A read an article that Poles spend a lot of time at work but waste it on useless things.

In many workplaces we have to "steal" worktime because employer cannot deliver it in sufficient amount. We want earn more and finally leave for abroad.

^that's one perspective.
I'd be curious what the employer's perspective is.
Certainly there'd be some truth on both parts. I will comment that there's a reason why there are 30 million fryzjerki in the town where I live- the owners all pay their employees a pittance so their former employees set up some competition. I'm sure there are many more examples, this is one.

and this is especially true in relation to the fact that property has tripled in price since 2005.
read this related thread
The rising costs of food and fuel in Poland and the effects on disposable income/economy

I think it would be lower if you took a more valid measurement (median) instead of average. My fiancé has a perfectly good and normal office job (sales-coordinator) and makes closer to the minimum than the average. Much closer.

Interesting to see what the median value for salaries would be and also see them divided by region and sector. There might be a few very high earners in Warsaw distorting the mean up

EDIT sorry nojas u beat me to it