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

It's a typical Asian name, isn't it, Fuzzywickets? :D

I can just imagine all forum members having a party. We'd probably all end up killing each other in five minutes.

Not really, because keyboard warriors wouldn't show up.

But then again, they're all welcome THIS SATURDAY in Poznan - details in the Meetup section :)

actually the average salary is about 1150 PLN, not just 1000 PLN.

Still very very low of course, it's hard to live with just 250 euros per month

Legal minimum wage in Poland in 2010 is 1317zl a month.

Most people i know in Poland are on less than 1500 zloty a month...Something will have to give over there or the country will slide into mass chronic depression. I get depressed when i go there and see how they live.

Yeah, you can see the depression on the faces of many too. It's only going to get worse as the rich try to get richer and rip off the poor. Trust me, there are those here that will do just that.

The small farms of the east will go belly up very very soon and when all the money Poles got from working abroads runs out...?? I reckon the next couple of years will be hard over there but i dont think they will sink like Titanic Ireland.

Exactly, investing in the future needs to be considered more. Many will lose out and if half a million move back......

I have a couple of polish mate who went home 3 years ago and they have found no work,,all the offers they got were bordering on slavery and comming back to Ireland or britain is no longer an option so i reckon they could be back to square one again.

You really have to help yourself these days in Poland. They should be fine as Poles know how to be rugged and tenacious, hard-nosed even if need be.

Maybe but i have a farmer friend whose hops devalued this year by 75% and at least in the Lublin area this is the case all over. I dont know what they are going to do. The Farms are so small that even if they were to sell up it would be worthless.

I'm surprised that it hasn't already happened. They are at the mercy of EU pricing strategies and can be driven out. It shouldn't be allowed as they provide some excellent produce.

The brewerys are now using chemicals instead of hops..and also china has robbed the strawberries market.. The EU is turning a blind eye and the POlish MEP's well the less said about them the better..

And herein lies the problem - why should I subsidise small farms when bigger farms (as even admitted by "Rural Solidarity" at one point) are more efficient?

Let's not forget that Poland should be getting 100% of the CAP money due soon.


This is true. I know quite a few Polish people who won't employ someone who's worked in the UK if they didn't do something relevant to their trade - what use is 3 years washing dishes to someone who wants a plumber?

We differ a little here, delph. I believe that the industry attempts, or should attempt, to benefit all and this is where my socialist side kicks in. Yes, there are winners and losers but I feel that this reality is better placed elsewhere. Agricultural produce benefits the majority and it is in the collective interest to protect those smaller farms that often provide for local communities.

If those smaller farms are provided with the tools to become more competitive, perhaps through incentive-based schemes, and they fail then it's more acceptable if they fall by the wayside but agricultural concerns occupy and have occupied a prominent place in Polish society and life. Give them hope first, then see!

Relavant to there trade?? Dishes?? The people i know worked in their trade in Ireland and other jobs.. They could not even find a dish washing job when they returned home.

Have to agree on this one, one wonders why some businessmen are dealt with by their workers, a couple of broken legs and a knuckle sandwich just might solve this problem.

Well, maybe not that extreme but some more sticking up for themselves and putting their character into sth wouldn't go amiss. It's their defeatist attitude that counts against them. Some more zip and determination would stand them in better stead.

Probably because a worker on minimum wage that does such a thing is not only going to find himself in trouble with the law, but also likely to find a few tougher thugs on his tail. Who are the police going to side with, the minimum wage worker, or the rich businessman?


I think a great deal of the problem is caused by the way that Solidarity (and their ilk) are only interested in their own - if you've got a moustache and work in Ciegelski, of course they'll help you. But if you're just an ordinary worker in an ordinary company, you've got no chance - and this is shameful.

The funny thing to me is that on paper, Polish laws are stronger than UK laws!

Anyway the wages over there are sh1te and the house prices are a joke..What will happen in the future will be decided as usual by market forces and its so called invisible hand. The Polish like us all will have to take a back seat and watch the chaos.

milky wrote:


indeed.

There is a self-centred and hard-done-by attitude. Many are begrudging in plying their trade and a day is like a chore. When some overcome their self piteous mentality, they may stand a chance.

Property prices are a joke here, period!! Poland is the first country to have invented the 60-year mortgage ;0 ;) ;)

Worth considering that in many jobs (even low paid ones) the employers want the workers to be self-employed (one-man firm) so they don't have to pay ZUS etc. That automatically costs the worker over 800 a month in ZUS.

I'm not one for violence, but when you see a business man pays somebody a low wage and then fails to pay on time saying he was no money, that person is a scum. One wonders why the government and solidarity don't step in. The price of homes in Poland are a joke, but if you build yourself it so much cheaper.

I know a guy who built a small two story wooden house in POland 6 months ago.It cost him 75000 Euro.(4 rooms). Thats still a huge amount of money in a country with such small wages.

I don't understand your post, if the guy built a house for that price, surely he could afford it or was able to get a mortgage?

He could afford it because he saved up the money in England but my point is that this is still alot of money for a tiny wooden house in a country were the majority earn about 100 euro a week.Maybe he got a bad deal..

Smart person, the place will probally be on the market for 800,000 zlote, the banks lend money to citizens building at the rate that every square metre of building cost 2000zl!

Lets get serious, people complain of low wages but one of my friend gas bill for dec/jan was in excess of 1700zl. (apartment about 80sqm)

I wonder how people pay for heating during winter, nothing ceases to amaze me when it comes to wages/cost in Poland.

230 euro per week is the national median weekly wage - that includes Plebsville, PL - the median is half as much again here in Warsaw.