Cost of living in Gdańsk, average salary for experienced software engineer in Poland

Hi Jilani

Are you staying in POland? I need some information as i am also in process with poland employer.
Please contact me viratpatil@gmail if you wish to help me asnwering my quetions

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salary and cost of living in Gdansk

Hi, I need some information about the cost of living in Gdansk, Poland. My husband got a job offer as a senior test lead on a gross monthly salary of 12500PLN which will come down to approximately 8500PLN net-off taxes excluding some variables if on a project. Also, he's been told that there will be a lot of travelling which might include working at client base. We are a family of three including my child, who is a pre-schooler.

It would be very helpful if someone can provide actual data relating to expected expenditures viz. house rent, medical expenses, schooling, provisions, etc.

Hey Everyone,

I was wondering if anyone would have any options for nursery/kindergarten English- International schools for Indian Children?

We have seen the British International School, but the same is out of our budget.

Any help in this regard would be highly appreciated.

Regards

Vriti Anand

If you just want your child to attend nursery school for the sake of social interaction, play and general development, then you'll find that a Polish pre-school will serve that purpose quite well, regardless of the language issue. Young children generally adjust quite well after a short time and your child will even begin to pick up some Polish.

Hi, I am from India. i have one doubt that those who coming to Poland through dependent visa, can they work in Poland and how about the job opportunities there for Mechanical Engineers ?

Please Suggest.

Regards:
Rajesh M S

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Cost of living in Gdansk

Hi,

I was made an offer of salary 14000 PLN NETT (not gross) per month in Gdansk. Could you guys help me figure out how much would I be able to save considering the fact I have a family of 3 including me. (My kid would be going to pre-school soon)

2500 flat + 1700 food

Hi All,

Do you have any idea about gross salary in Gdansk for 5+ years experianced SAP MM concultant? They offered me 14000 PLN

@mertszgn

That seems about right. You can always ask for 17 k and see if they will negotiate. Experienced SAP consultants are in demand, especially ones willing to work in countries with low wages like Poland. However, you should consider focusing on finding a job in a richer country with higher wages.

@DominicB

Thank you very much for your answer.

I tried to negotiate but they said it is the maximum budget. I'm looking for job in other countries also but it is very hard for me to find because I don't have work permit in EU. It can be a good start maybe. What do you think? Do you think it is very less salary when you compare with other SAP consultants?

@mertszgn

It's half or less what an experienced SAP consultant makes in the richer countries. Yes, that is a big difference, not only in terms of wages, but even more so in terms of savings potential. The big problems with working in Poland are low wages, high cost of living compared to wages, and abysmal savings potential.

My guess is that you have not carried out a proper job search. The best jobs are always advertised solely by word of mouth, face to face, in the real world. Internet sites and recruiters get the table scraps that no one in the know is interested in.

Build up your network of personal real-world professional contacts and use them to help you find a good job in a richer country.

I don't think this job in Poland is a "good start". As I said, experienced SAP consultants are in demand everywhere, so you should have little trouble finding a much better job before long in a much better place if you rely on your network of real-world professional contacts. It will probably be easier for you to do that in your own country than in Poland.

@DominicB

Thanks you for your suggenstions. I'll consider them :)

Also keep in mind that DominicB sole purpose on this forum is to keep foreigners away from Poland. His advice is worth exactly jack ****.

Cost of living here is fairly cheap. I pay 3000zl a month (excl utilities, +600 summer and +1000 winter approx) for a large 180m2 3 bedroom appartment +-4km from the city center. Food is cheap, owning a car is cheap, going out is cheap.

That's completely untrue. Firstly he's American, living in America, so what possible reason would he have for wanting to keep foreigners out of Poland? Secondly although he is heavily biased towards maths based education and is obsessed with saving money, those are not purely personal peculiarites, he has entirely sound, logical reasons for both. As advice goes, he's one of the better people on this forum because although he can be somewhat filled with gloom and doom, there is plenty of sound common sense underlying it. Also he can tick the boxes of being a highly educated, mature professional person and spent many years living in Poland, only returning to America quite recently so he is far better placed to advise people than any of the mixture of weirdos/trolls/racists/Polish nationalists/sentimental PolAms etc who inhabit this place.


Not in comparison to salaries it isn't. Most people who leave their homeland in seek of better paid work are hoping to save money or send money back home to their families or even a combination of both. That's difficult to do in a country like Poland where salaries are only two thirds of the EU average and where the cost of living is rapidly reaching average EU levels. Food may be relatively cheap (though that varies depending on what, where and when you buy something) but footwear, clothing, electronics etc are often more expensive than elsewhere in Europe and when they ARE cheap, they're really poor quality.

I cannot comment for the specific position as i do not know salaries acroos Europe for sap consultants but I believe 14k is good money for Polish standards. The only problem will be after 86k limit, the income tax will be 30 percent and nearly half of the salary will be cut.

First 6 months of the year it might be something around 9500-10.000 netto, for the second part of the year around 7-8.000 whic is still good for Poland, especially if you are alone.

Second thing is, in general what i see with corporations here, yearly raise is so low therefore, it is better to negotiate for the highest you can get

But surely in all European countries you have high rates of tax on upper earnings - Polish top rate is less than German, French, UK etc.

Thank you all for your comments.

They are not open to bargain, but I'll try again. I'm also looking for opportunities in other countries in Europe, especially in Germany, but generally being native German speaker and having work permit are prerequisites and I don't possess both of them. I just trying to learn German by myself.

In this circumstances, I can't even apply to most of job opportunities. I wonder if having a job experience in any of EU country will facilitate to apply to further opportunities and have a positive affect for finding a job with better salary. What do you think?

If yes I think I can accept the job and work for about a year and if things won't go very well I can look for a new job in Poland or in another Europen country which offers a higher salary.

The experience, in my opinion, of course will hellp to find something better if you perform good however, residence permit you will have in Poland will not let you work in any other country so that you will still need to get work permit foe any other country which you will want to work.

Hello All,
I have been offered a gross salary of 12000 PLN/month and if I move to Gdansk it will be with my wife. I work in IT/Software sector with 8 plus years of experience in QA.

Kindly suggest on below :
1) How much could be my tax deduction ?
2) How much does a decent ( 800-900 sq feet apartment ) place in a clean and safe neighborhood cost ?
3) How much does utilities cost ?
4) How much does decent vegetarian eating for 2 ppl ( including once/twice a week eating out ) cost ?
5) How much does travelling to Gdynia for work cost ?
6) Any other expenses to be considered when factoring cost of living ?
7) Is it a safe place from law and order point of view ?

I have worked earlier in London for around 3 years.
Thanking all in advance for the correct pointers.

Thankyou.

@SKQA

12k zl is a very good salary by PL standards.... you'll be not only able to afford a comfortable existence for you and your wife (with a kid though it may be a bit harder if you're the sole bread winner) and will even be able to put aside some savings each month... rents/bills start out at around 2.5k zl for a cheap place in the city and go up from there... you can get a very nice place for 3.5k-4.5k zl


In general, the tricity area is far safer than London.

@Dirk diggler
Thankyou your reply , it helps.
It will be really great if you can reply inline with the 7 queries I have posted. I can see 2 of my queries getting answered by your first reply i.e 2 and 7. Thankyou for this.

I hope to save arnd 7K PLN/month , will this be really feasible with 12K gross PLN before tax cut ?

@SKQA

You can find out the remaining questions on your own. You will not be able to save 7k pln out of 12k gross unless you plan to live in a cardboard box or homeless shelter. At most you'll save 3-4k pln and that's stretching it esp if you have a wife that isn't working.

Your income tax deduction I believe will be around 20% if no ZUS, and around 35% if you're paying for ZUS.

you can work this out here: calculla.com/salary_in_poland with 12k before taxes, you will get a tad more than 8k net.


no


impossible to answer. In general, Poland is not a country to move to for the savings potential of one's salary. You earn a comparably (to Western Europe) low salary, but besides services and housing, for imported stuff you pay the same price as everywhere else.

@Dirk diggler
Thankyou for your feedback, it helps :)

@jgrabner
Thankyou for the detailed response , appreciate.
This is of great help.

You should start thinking in metric, they don't use feet and inches in Poland :) so you're looking for something around 70 square metres. Here's a link to listings for apartments in Gdansk:

domiporta.pl/mieszkanie/wynajme/pomorskie/gdansk

In addition to the rent stated there is usually an extra service charge for cold water, rubbish collection etc called a Czynsz and that's generally about another 500 a month. Sometimes, depending on the type of building this will include central heating and hot water but not always. The ad will usually list the service charge separately. Your electricity bill will be about 100 a month and you might have gas too. Internet, about 60 a month.

As for neighbourhoods, well because of its history and social housing, Polish neighbourhoods tend to be very socially mixed. You will find local authority blocks of apartments right beside expensive luxury private blocks so there's really no such thing as a completely upmarket/exclusive neighbourhood or an indeed a bad part of town. Pretty much everywhere is 'clean and safe'.


It's not easy to find vegetarian options in Poland. It's still very much a meat eating culture so your choice will be somewhat limited if you're eating out. You can pay pretty much anything you like for a meal. A cheapish but acceptable main course will cost around 20 pln up to about 100 for an upmarket option.

By the way, you should consider a smaller apartment if it will save you some money. For two people, 50sq metres is plenty of space and could be a thousand a month saved, far better to have that 12 grand in YOUR pocket than in a landlord's :))

@Atch
Cool, thankyou for your wise words and detailed advice. You are very helpful. I shall definitely factor these when making a decision.

there are vegetarian bars in Gdańsk and they are relatively cheap - there is even a network of vegetarian bars called Green Way - also the milk bars serve most food without meat you just have to know what you are ordering

I think I have seen Green Way outlets in Gdańsk in 2007 but their website doesn't mention any at the moment - there are two in Gdynia though - travelling from Gdańsk to Gdynia for a weekend dinner/lunch maybe a bit too much (though I commuted from Gdynia to Gdańsk for work)

there is another vegan network that is present in Gdańsk and that is Bioway

Well I know, I mean you can get pierogi with grzybami and kapusta, that sort of thing, or any number of soups but it's not the most exciting and often tastes a bit bland. If you come from a culture like the Indian sub-continent with a vast range of delicious vegetarian dishes, it doesn't really compare. Bioway is kind of ok for a quick snack but it's not really an eating experience, a lot of it is wraps and variations on mainstream dishes like a veggie version of Bigos and vegetarian lasagne. I took a look at the Greenway menu and it's a bit better as it has a few curries and things but there's still a lot of those veggie versions of local Polish dishes, like veggie cutlets instead of pork. If he can find an Indian or authentic Chinese restaurant that would be an alternative as they usually have plenty of tasty veggie options.

@SKQA, you're welcome :)

are pierogi ruskie vegetarian in your dictionary - as far as I know Indian cuisine uses milk and milk products