The end of the minimum wage under the old rules. Big changes for millions of Poles. New law coming

• In April 2025, the Ministry of Family, Labor and Social Policy presented a new draft law on the minimum wage.
• The changes are mandatory. They must be implemented together with the EU directive on this matter
• An important change for employees, which assumed that the minimum wage would be equal to the basic wage, was removed from the bill
• This means that from 1 January 2026, bonuses and awards will still be eligible for inclusion in the national minimum wage.
• From January 1, 2026, only the functional allowance will be excluded from the minimum. However, bonuses and awards will not be included until 2028.

The draft act on minimum wages aims to implement into Polish law Directive (EU) 2022/2041 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 19 October 2022 on adequate minimum wages in the European Union.

Member States with statutory minimum wages were to introduce a framework for setting and updating their level by 15 November 2024. In Poland, this has not been achieved to date.

What changes do EU regulations require? On April 14, 2025, the Ministry of Family, Labor and Social Policy presented a new draft amendment to the act.

The most important changes are:

• two dates for changing the minimum wage. According to the draft act, when the forecast price index for the following year submitted to the RDS together with the proposal for the minimum wage is at least 105%, two dates for changing the minimum wage and the minimum hourly rate are established, i.e. from 1 January and from 1 July. On the other hand, when this index is less than 105% – one date for changing the above-mentioned amounts of minimum wage guarantees is established , i.e. from 1 January;
• in principle , an annual procedure for determining the minimum wage and the minimum hourly rate, similar to the one currently in force . According to the draft, the amount of the minimum wage will be the subject of annual negotiations conducted within the RDS. The Council of Ministers will present to the RDS for negotiations proposals for the amount of the minimum wage for employees and the minimum hourly rate for specific civil law contracts - by 15 June each year. Negotiations will be conducted for 30 days from the receipt of the proposal and information. If the RDS does not agree on the above-mentioned amounts of wage guarantees within this period, then decisions in this respect will be made by the Council of Ministers by way of a regulation. The amounts of the minimum wage and the minimum hourly rate established by the Council of Ministers cannot be lower than those proposed to the RDS for negotiations.
• maintaining, in principle, the current mechanism for setting the minimum wage. The draft provisions of the act therefore guarantee an annual increase in the minimum wage by no less than the forecast increase in the prices of consumer goods and services in general for a given year, adopted for the development of the draft budget act and submitted to the Social Dialogue Council for negotiations. At the same time, in the year of negotiations, the minimum wage is lower than half of the average wage in the national economy in the first quarter of that year, this guarantee is additionally increased by 2/3 of the forecasted real GDP growth rate. If the actual price increase in the previous year differed from the forecast, the draft provides for the application of a correction mechanism (application of a verification index in relation to the minimum wage applicable in a given year due to the difference between the actual and forecast price increase in the previous year). If, as a result of the application of the mechanism, the minimum wage in the following year would be lower than the minimum wage applicable in the year of negotiations, the minimum wage cannot be set at a lower level than the minimum wage applicable from 1 July of the year of negotiations.
• indicative reference value at the level of 55% of the forecasted average wage in the national economy, adopted for the development of the draft budget act). This value will be used for the annual assessment of the minimum wage.

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- Under Article 5(4) of the aforementioned Directive, Member States are required to assess the adequacy of the minimum wage. For this purpose, they will have to choose one or more indicative reference values ​​at international or national level. The Directive leaves Member States free to choose the number, type and level of indicative reference values. The indicative reference value is to be used to assess the adequacy of the minimum wage, and the Directive does not require it to be achieved. The ratio of the minimum wage to the average wage is gradually increasing. In 2023, this ratio was 50%, and in 2024 - 52.5%. On the other hand, the forecasted ratio of the minimum wage in 2025 (PLN 4,666) to the forecasted average wage in 2025 established in the Budget Act for 2025 (PLN 8,673) is 53.8%. Therefore, it is justified that the indicative reference value that we are to strive to achieve and to which the minimum wage will be compared be set at a higher level (55% of the forecasted average wage in the national economy, adopted for the development of the draft budget act) - we read in the draft.

And further: Considering the current availability of indicators in national statistics, it is reasonable to use an indicative reference value in the form of the ratio of the minimum wage to the average wage . The Central Statistical Office publishes data on the average wage annually, which makes them easily and publicly available, and at the same time comparable over time. The average wage is also forecast in the budget act.

What is important, however, is that another very important change for employees was removed from the bill, which assumed that the minimum wage would be equal to the basic wage. This change would mean that employee bonuses and allowances could not be included (as is the case today) in the minimum wage.

The proposal was criticized at the public consultation stage and was ultimately removed from the draft amendment by the Ministry of Labor.

- In response to all comments submitted to art. 15 of the draft act in its original wording, it wrote: "The corrected draft does not contain provisions on establishing the minimum wage as the basic wage. Currently, the draft provides for the gradual exclusion of individual components from the scope of the component minimum wage," quotes Infor.

The Act states that the following will not be included in the national minimum wage:

• functional supplement (available to an employee employed in a position related to team management and to an employee coordinating the performance of specific tasks, as well as to other employees who are entitled to a functional supplement, under the terms specified in separate regulations, a collective labour agreement, another collective agreement based on the Act, remuneration regulations, statute, etc.)
• other allowances (salary allowance other than the salary allowance for night work, length of service allowance, allowance for special working conditions, functional allowance, payable to an employee in particular for having additional skills or for performing additional activities or for a periodic increase in the scope of official duties or for entrusting additional tasks or for the purpose of motivating to work or due to the nature of the work or the conditions of performing the work)
• bonuses and awards,

- The purpose of introducing the change is to ensure a more just and transparent form of the minimum wage and to gradually restore the motivational nature of individual components of remuneration (e.g. functional supplement, special supplement and other supplements), which currently often constitute a supplement to the level of the minimum wage. In such cases, these supplements have ceased to serve as a reward and recognition of the employee for, for example, professional experience, additional qualifications or performing additional functions - argues the Ministry of Labour.

However, the project envisages a gradual exclusion from the scope of the component minimum wage:

• the functional supplement will be excluded from the minimum wage from 1 January 2026,
• other allowances from 1 January 2027,
• bonuses and awards from January 1, 2028

Let us add that the minimum national wage in 2025 is:

• minimum wage - PLN 4,666 gross. The lowest national net wage, or "take home" wage, is PLN 3,510.92.
• minimum hourly rate in 2025 - PLN 30.50 gross