Poland raises the minimum wage to PLN 4,950: a new threshold for foreigners with work permits

In brief

• The Council of Ministers regulation of 14 September 2026, published on 15 September, sets the 2027 minimum wage at PLN 4,950 gross a month, PLN 144 more than in 2026.
• The minimum hourly rate under civil-law contracts will rise to PLN 32.30.
• Under the Act on Foreigners, pay under a residence and work permit must not be below the minimum wage, regardless of working time and type of contract.
• So from 1 January 2027 a foreigner with such a permit must be paid at least PLN 4,950 a month, even when working half-time.
• Since 27 April 2026 residence and work applications are filed only online through the MOS portal.

Article 114: how the minimum wage is linked to residence

The most common basis for a foreigner to live and work in Poland is a temporary residence and work permit. Its conditions are set out in Article 114 of the Act on Foreigners. One of them: monthly pay not below the minimum wage, regardless of working time and the basis on which the work is done. Another: pay not below that of Polish employees doing comparable work.

The full minimum wage rule has applied since 2022. Before that, employers hired foreigners half-time and paid half the minimum. That is no longer allowed: a half-time employee must still earn at least the full minimum wage. So each rise in the minimum directly moves the pay floor for all foreigners with this permit.

What this means for you. If you work in Poland on a residence and work permit and earn less than PLN 4,950 gross a month, from 1 January 2027 your pay must rise to that level. It is required both by labour law and by the Act on Foreigners.

Who it affects

First of all, non-EU foreigners living in Poland on a temporary residence and work permit. EU, EEA and Swiss citizens are not affected: they do not need a permit. Nor does it affect people living in Poland on other grounds, for example with permanent residence or as a family member of a Polish citizen.

Second, employers. A company hiring foreigners is responsible for ensuring pay matches the permit conditions. If you have a company in Poland and hire staff from outside the EU, check your payroll before January. How we register companies in Poland is described on the page on a company in Poland.

Third, those who are only applying. The voivode checks the pay from documents attached by the employer. If an application is decided around the turn of the year and the documents show pay below the new minimum, it may raise questions. It is safer to state pay of at least PLN 4,950 from the start. The same applies to renewals filed in late 2026: the new decision will be checked against the rules in force on the day it is made, not on the day of filing.

What this means for you. If you are applying for residence with the right to work in the last months of 2026, ask your employer to state pay of at least PLN 4,950. The decision may come in 2027, when the new minimum applies.

Filing only through the MOS portal

Since 27 April 2026 applications for temporary and permanent residence, including with the right to work, are filed only electronically through the MOS portal of the Office for Foreigners. Paper applications received by the voivode's office from that date are not considered. You can apply while legally present in Poland; the application is signed with a trusted profile or a qualified electronic signature.

After filing, the system issues an electronic confirmation that has replaced the stamp in the passport. Fingerprints are given in person when the voivode summons you. The fee for a residence and work permit is PLN 440, plus PLN 100 for the card; both are paid outside the portal.

A MOS application includes a scan of all passport pages, a photo, proof of payment of the fee and the card fee, and, for a residence and work permit, an attachment completed and signed by the employer. The employer receives a link to sign the attachment, valid for 30 days. This attachment states the position, working time, contract type and pay, so the PLN 4,950 threshold is checked first of all against it. If the employer states an amount below the minimum, the application will raise questions even before the fingerprint appointment.

What this means for you. The new minimum does not change the filing procedure. Only the amount the employer must confirm changes.

How much is that net, and what does it cost the employer?

PLN 4,950 is a gross figure, before the employee's tax and contributions. The employee takes home less. As a guide, the government information service estimated the 2026 minimum wage of PLN 4,806 gross at about PLN 3,606 net. The exact 2027 figure depends on the employee's tax situation and will be clear from the payroll calculation.

For the employer, the cost is higher than gross: on top of the salary it pays its share of social contributions and fund charges. By our estimate, that is about 20% above gross. So a foreign employee on the minimum wage in 2027 will cost a company roughly PLN 5,900-6,000 a month. This is an estimate, not a calculation for a specific company.

What this means for you. Compare the pay in your contract in gross terms. The threshold in the Act on Foreigners is PLN 4,950 gross, not net. A contract that shows only the net amount should be clarified with the employer before it is attached to an application.

4,666, 4,806, 4,950: how the minimum wage has grown

The minimum wage in Poland is set by the Council of Ministers every year. First the government proposes an amount to the social partners; then, if there is no agreement, it sets it by regulation by 15 September. That is what happened in 2026: the unions pushed for at least PLN 5,200, employers were ready for less, the social dialogue council reached no agreement, and the government adopted its own proposal.

Over two years the minimum has risen by PLN 284, or about 6%. For foreigners, every rise moves the floor: a contract that met the permit conditions a year ago may fall below the threshold a year later if pay was not indexed.

What this means for you. If your contract runs for several years at a fixed salary, check it every January. The threshold changes every year; the contract does not change by itself.

The Blue Card and other grounds

The minimum wage rule concerns above all the temporary residence and work permit. For the EU Blue Card, issued to highly qualified specialists, the threshold is different: it is linked to the average wage in Poland and is noticeably higher than the minimum. The new minimum wage regulation does not change the Blue Card directly.

There is also a separate work permit that the voivode issues to an employer for a foreigner who entered, for example, on a visa. It has pay requirements too, including comparison with Polish employees doing the same work. If a foreigner works under a civil-law contract rather than an employment contract, the minimum hourly rate applies: PLN 32.30 an hour from 2027. But for residence with the right to work the law looks at the monthly amount: it must be at least PLN 4,950.

The rule does not affect people living in Poland on other grounds: permanent residence, family member of a Polish citizen, EU long-term resident status. Their right to work does not depend on pay. If you are considering Poland for a business rather than employment, start with the page on registering a company in Poland.

What this means for you. First identify your ground of residence, then check the threshold. For a residence and work permit the 2027 benchmark is PLN 4,950 gross a month.

What happens if pay falls below the threshold

The conditions on which a residence and work permit was granted must be met throughout its validity, not only on the filing date. If from 1 January 2027 a foreigner keeps earning less than PLN 4,950 gross, that is a breach of both the Act on Foreigners and labour law. The voivode may revoke the permit if the ground on which it was granted no longer exists or the conditions are no longer met.

For the employer the consequences are no smaller. The labour inspectorate checks the legality of employing foreigners, and pay below the minimum is one of the first questions in an inspection. For the employee the risk is different: at renewal or a change of status, a history of pay below the threshold becomes a reason for refusal, and without a valid permit one may not work.

A note on part-time work. Until 2022 a foreigner could be hired half-time and paid half the minimum, and such contracts often concealed full-time work. Since 2022 the law requires the full minimum wage whatever the working time. Example: a half-time employee must earn PLN 4,950 gross a month from 2027, not PLN 2,475.

What this means for you. Raising pay to the new minimum is the cheapest way to keep the permit. Do it in the January payroll rather than waiting for an inspection or renewal.

Checking a foreign employee's contract

The voivode checks the conditions from documents attached by the employer, and the labour inspectorate can check how they are met in practice. A mismatch between the pay in the permit decision and actual payments is a typical problem. If the terms of work change, the permit may need to be changed, and this should be checked before the change.

What this means for you. If even one item does not match, fix the contract or the permit in advance. It is cheaper to remove a discrepancy before an inspection than to explain it afterwards.

What to do before 1 January 2027

If you are only travelling to Poland, it helps to know about the funds checked at the border. A comparison of Poland with neighbouring Hungary on the path to citizenship by descent is in the article on Hungary and Poland. Other programmes are in the residence permit catalogue.

How this article was prepared

The article is based on the Polish Council of Ministers regulation of 14 September 2026 on the minimum wage and minimum hourly rate for 2027, published in the Journal of Laws on 15 September 2026, on Article 114 of the Polish Act on Foreigners in its current wording, and on Office for Foreigners materials on the MOS portal and fees. The 2026 hourly rate is taken from the regulation for 2026. This article does not replace advice on your own permit.