A job offer in Wroclaw - will it possible to get a neat education for my kids?

Dear Members,

I've been surfing the forum since a while, and now it's an honor to get your advise and recommendation regarding a new life in Wroclaw.

I've been offered a job with ~ 12K PLN Gross in Wroclaw, and i need your input if this figure is going to provide a good life style to a family of 4 members?(Housing-Food-Some fun). I know that a 30% tax is running out there.

Moreover my main concern is about my kids education, I've a 7 years old son and a 4 years old daughter, Is it possible to get a neat education for my kids, knowing that they can get an English education, but it'll take some time to learn Polish.

Also, i don't know if it's possible to get a job for my wife(a doctor with PHD) and what should be the steps to enter the market (some type of getting a certificate equivalence).

I really appreciate your participation or any advise.

Thanks in advance

Some threads to get your reading started, I'd be surprised if the answers aren't in there. It's all been discussed lots of times.

That's great for a single person, pretty good for a couple, but really not very tempting for someone with two kids for whom they will have to pay for private English-language daycare and education. Taking into account travel and moving expenses and visa fees, it may not be worth the move, especially considering the fact that, even under the best of circumstances, you would not be able to save up a substantial amount of money in absolute dollars or Euros.


For doctors who do not own their own practice, wages in Poland are abysmally low. The wages for academics are also abysmally low. It is unlikely that going through the harrowing nostrification process would be worth the effort (that's the process of getting a certificate equivalence). It's safer to assume that your wife will not find work than to bet the farm on the odd chance that she might. Poland is a country that doctors leave in droves to earn better wages under better conditions elsewhere, not the other way around.

By the way, I'm a pathologist with a Ph.D., and I earn a lot more as a scientific translator and freelance academic advisor and mentor than I ever could as a physician or academic. After I arrived in Wrocław, I was interviewed for a position at the university here, and everything was just fine until I heard their offer, which was so low that I couldn't possibly accept it. There wasn't even any point in negotiating with such a low-ball offer. Wages for hospital staff doctors are so low that I wouldn't even bother getting out of bed for an interview in the first place, never mind go through the nostrification process.

Bottom line: you're better off either looking for a job in a Western European country like Norway or Sweden, in an English-speaking country, or biting the bullet and signing a five-year contract for a high-paying job in Saudi Arabia or the Gulf states, leaving your family behind. Sure, it's like going to jail for five years, except at the end you have a pretty nice wad of cash for your kids' college funds. Actually, I regret somewhat that I didn't do that myself.

Let me guess. You're IT professional from India? As DominicB wrote it's too low salary to pay for the family and save any substantial amount of money. It's good salary as for Poland (over 2x average), but for somebody living here and spending here and whose wife works and children go to public school. I think that age of your children would let them learn the language fast and attend public school. But as DominicB wrote in western Europe or USA/Australia you will earn more, and people are more used to Indian immigrants there. (Poland has the smallest amount of foreigners in the whole European Union and most of them are Ukrainians, little Vietnamese and very few Indians).

One more thing: the chances of your wife finding a decent job for decent pay are FAR, FAR higher in Western Europe or an English speaking country than in Poland. By several orders of magnitude. And the amount you will be able to save up in absolute dollars or Euros will be much higher.

Well, I live in Wroclaw and I think that the situation is a bit more optimistic, that was painted there. To be honest, you can live quite comfortably with your family in Wroclaw, but unless your wife be working, you won't get much savings. Much depends on your taxing form. Earning 12k zl/month you'll pay 32%, not 18% tax, so in pesimistic variant, you'll earn a bit more 8k zl/month. However, you'll pay taxes for you and your family, so you won't pay so much. The best variant for you is to not be hired as regular employee, but to become a sole trader. In this case, your gross income would be 14 200 zl, because your employer won't pay additional insurance payments. From this amount of money, you'll pay 1000 zl/month to ZUS (insurance office) and 19% tax, so yo could have nearly 11k/month. Cost of living can be similiar to this: you can rent a 100-150 sq. m detached house for about 3500 zl or 60-70 sq m flat with 3 rooms for 2500 zl. In these sums usually they are payments for electricity, gas, etc., but you will need to pay about 200 zl for phone, internet and TV. Transport: the most convinient option is to buy monthly public transport cards, that allow you to use buses and tramways without limits. This will be about 400 zl/month for all family members. Younger kid care: I'm not 100% sure about the exacly cost, but you could hire a sitter (usuallly a young student girl with nice english skills) for max 2000 zl (employer cost) or buy a place in private polish kindergarden (about 1000 zl). Your younger kid will have to go to school at the age of six or seven, so you have 2-3 years for her to learn polish, what should be quite realistic. In this case you could save the money from international school fee. However, with older kid you won't avoid this cost. I've checked fees in British International School and they are 3300-4500 zl, depending on your kid age (let's assume 3500 zl). Food: I'm not buing food for myself, but I'm sure that 500-600 zl is enough. You don't need to buy additional medical or any other insurance, because 1) you have public ones, 2) your employer propably will offer you free ones as part of your social package. So, sum of your obligatory monthly cost stays for 7600-10100 zl. Adding some expenses for clothing&fun, you alone should be able to support your family financially. I don't know how long will take for your wife to nostrificate her degree, but as a student, I see in my school (Wroclaw University of Economics) plenty of foreign academics, so it is not an impossible process. However, payment for academic teachers aren't stunning, so she should consider working in business. If she has the doctorate in business/technical/medical sciences she has great chances to earn a good money. But if she hasn't, there is possibility that she'll earn 2-3 times less than you.