Employer of Record in Poland: 21 Providers Compared (2026)

Employing someone in Poland: key facts

Poland runs one national set of labour rules — no provinces or states to split by — so the figures below are national, with sources and the date each was checked.

Minimum wage

• PLN 4,806/month gross from 2026-01-01, fixed for the whole calendar year — the first year since 2022 with only one annual adjustment instead of two (zielonalinia.gov.pl, checked 2026-10-01).
• A separate PLN 31.40/hour minimum applies only to civil-law contracts (umowa zlecenia), not to an employee hired through an EOR.

Employer contributions

Combined, that’s roughly 21% of gross pay below the 30x cap, falling to about 9.5% above it, since only emerytalna and rentowa are capped. Separately, ZFŚS (the company social fund) becomes mandatory once an employer reaches 50 FTE employees — a fixed PLN 2,943.23 per employee for 2026, not a percentage of salary (gazetaprawna.pl, checked 2026-10-01).

Annual leave and public holidays

• 20 days/year with under 10 years of “zatrudnienia” (employment seniority); 26 days/year once seniority reaches 10 years. Seniority includes up to 8 years credited for a completed higher-education degree, so many new graduates start on 26 days (prawo.pl, checked 2026-10-01).
• At least one block of leave must run 14 consecutive calendar days.
• 14 statutory public holidays/year, separate from annual leave — Wigilia (24 December) became the 14th from 2025 (gazetaprawna.pl, checked 2026-10-01).

Probation

• Capped at 3 months total. Since the 2023-04-26 amendment, its length is tied to the fixed-term contract planned next: 1 month for a contract under 6 months, 2 months for 6–12 months, up to 3 months for longer or indefinite contracts (zielonalinia.gov.pl, checked 2026-10-01).
• May be extended once, by up to 1 month, if justified by the nature of the work.

Notice and severance

Source: przepisy.gofin.pl, checked 2026-10-01.

• No general statutory severance for an ordinary dismissal. A statutory odprawa applies only under the 2003 group-redundancy act, to employers with 20+ employees (an EOR running a large combined Polish payroll will typically qualify): 1 month’s pay under 2 years’ service, 2 months for 2–8 years, 3 months over 8 years, capped at 15x the minimum wage — PLN 72,090 in 2026 (gazetaprawna.pl, checked 2026-10-01).

13th salary and bonuses

• Not mandatory for a private-sector employer. The “trzynastka” 13th-month payment is a legal entitlement only for public-budget-sector employees under a dedicated 1997 act; for an EOR’s hire, any annual bonus is discretionary company policy, not a statutory obligation (poradnikprzedsiebiorcy.pl, checked 2026-10-01).

Mandatory benefits

• Employer-funded sick pay: 80% of wages for the first 33 days of incapacity per calendar year (14 days if the employee is over 50); ZUS pays the sickness benefit after that (gazetaprawna.pl, checked 2026-10-01).
• ZFŚS (company social fund), mandatory at 50+ FTE — see Employer contributions above.
• PPK auto-enrolment — see Employer contributions above. There’s no mandatory employer-paid private health or life insurance; public healthcare (NFZ) runs on the employee’s own 9% contribution, not an employer cost.

Work permits

• EU/EEA/Swiss nationals need none. Most other third-country nationals need a zezwolenie na pracę (work permit), applied for by the employing entity — which includes a Polish EOR entity — to the regional voivode (biznes.gov.pl, checked 2026-10-01).
• Since the 2025-06-01 agency-market reform, a newly KRAZ-registered employment agency can’t place a foreign national who needs a work permit or the lighter “oświadczenie” route until 2 years after its own registration date — according to a law-firm briefing on the reform (dzp.pl, checked 2026-10-01).

Currency and payroll

• Payroll runs in Polish złoty (PLN); 1 USD = 3.8449 PLN per the NBP’s average-rate table, dated 2026-09-30 (nbp.pl, checked 2026-10-01).
• Pay runs at least monthly, in arrears, no later than the 10th of the following month, moved to the preceding working day if that date falls on a non-working day (Kodeks pracy Art. 85).

Is Employer of Record legal in Poland?

Allowed, with limits. Polish law has no licence or registration specifically naming or regulating “Employer of Record”; using one to hire a Poland-based employee without the client holding its own Polish entity is common and not itself prohibited. But the model sits inside two fact-sensitive tests that Polish law firms flag directly:

• The temporary-work-agency test. If the arrangement in substance matches supplying a worker to work under a client’s day-to-day direction and control, it can fall under the Act of 9 July 2003 on the Employment of Temporary Workers — KRAZ registration, and an 18-month-in-36-months limit on how long one worker can stay assigned to the same client (lexlege.pl, checked 2026-10-01).
• The Art. 22 test. Regardless of that classification, if the foreign client in fact directs, supervises and disciplines the worker rather than the EOR, Polish courts or the State Labour Inspectorate can find the real employment relationship exists directly with the client, not the EOR, under the general employment-relationship test in Kodeks pracy Art. 22 (kkz.com.pl, checked 2026-10-01).
• Since 2025-06-01, a reform of the agency market (Ustawa z dnia 20 marca 2025 r. o rynku pracy i służbach zatrudnienia) raised the KRAZ registration fee from PLN 200 to PLN 1,000, raised fines for operating as an unregistered agency to up to PLN 100,000, required a genuine physical Polish office, and barred a newly registered agency from placing foreign nationals needing a work permit until 2 years after its own registration (grupaprogres.pl, checked 2026-10-01).
• Using an EOR doesn’t rule out permanent-establishment risk. A Polish tax-advisory firm states plainly that the EOR concept doesn’t eliminate the risk of the client’s own foreign entity being found to have a taxable permanent establishment in Poland (nexiaadvicero.eu, checked 2026-10-01).

For the client, three risks follow: misclassification if the client, not the EOR, actually runs the work day to day; a fine of PLN 1,000–30,000 if a worker stays assigned to the same client past the 18-month limit under the temporary-work-agency regime; and permanent-establishment exposure for the client’s own entity that an EOR doesn’t remove.

Who actually employs your hire in Poland

Vendors describe their entity model globally (“130+ owned entities,” “hybrid network”) far more often than they confirm it for Poland specifically. Here’s what each vendor’s own Poland-facing page — or a public registry — actually says:

Thirteen of these 21 don’t say whether Poland is served by their own entity or a partner’s — including Oyster, Rippling and G-P, three well-known names in the category. That matters here specifically: Poland’s own rules single out who’s licensed to place staff and for how long, so an undisclosed entity also means an undisclosed answer on KRAZ registration and the 18-month limit. Before signing, ask directly: “Is the entity that will employ my hire in Poland wholly owned by you, is it KRAZ-registered, and can you name it?”

How to choose an EOR in Poland

Need the clearest proof of a registered, licensed entity? Deel’s and Remote’s Polish entities are both on record with the KRS registry, and Boundless goes further, stating outright that standard EOR isn’t recognised in Poland and that a temp-agency licence is required — which it says it holds.

Expect to keep the hire with you past 18 months? None of the 21 vendors here publish their own KRAZ-registration date or confirm how they structure a long-running assignment against the 18-month-in-36-months limit. That’s a question to put to the vendor directly, not one this data answers.

Weighing price against entity proof? Skuad’s $299/month discounted price and the bottom of Remote People’s $299–$599/month range tie for the lowest Poland-specific figures, but neither names an entity. Deel discloses both: PLN 26,049/year and a named, KRS-registered entity. Playroll sits in between, with a $350–$700/month range and its own Poland-specific entity quote.

Hiring a non-EU national who needs a new work permit? Since 2025-06-01, a newly KRAZ-registered agency can’t place that hire for its first two years on the register. Boundless’s and Deel’s entities were both registered well before that date (2020 and 2021); confirm any newer or undisclosed entity’s registration date before relying on it for a work-permit case.

What it costs to employ someone in Poland through an EOR

The EOR, not the client, is the legal employer, and it runs a large combined Polish payroll across clients, so the small-payer wypadkowa relief doesn’t apply — the figures below use the 0.67% IT/office risk-category rate instead (poradnikprzedsiebiorcy.pl, checked 2026-10-01).

The EOR’s own fee is on top of the above. Published numbers on vendor Poland pages in our data range from $299/month (Skuad, discounted from $449) to $699/month (Remote’s global rate, shown on its Poland page); Deel’s own Poland-specific figure, PLN 26,049/year (about PLN 2,170/month), sits in between. Playroll cites a Poland-specific $350–$700/month, Borderless AI a Poland-specific $579/month, and Remote People a Poland-specific $299–$599/month. Most other vendors publish only a global list price ($99–$699/month) or none at all, quote-based.

Not included above: the ZFŚS company social fund (a fixed PLN 2,943.23 per employee for 2026, not a rate on salary, and only mandatory at 50+ FTE) and employer-funded sick pay (a contingent cost, paid only during actual sickness absence) — see the key facts section for both.

Hidden costs, where actually published: Boundless and Oyster both state they charge no separate setup fee; Oyster separately requires a refundable deposit with the amount not disclosed. No vendor in this set publishes a Poland-specific deposit, minimum term or termination fee — where the table above shows “not confirmed” or a global list price, treat it as unpublished for Poland, not zero.

When you don’t need an EOR

• A genuinely independent contractor. Cheaper and closer to the real relationship if the person sets their own hours and tools and can serve other clients. See how to pay contractors in Poland and our hiring guide.
• Your own Polish entity (KRS). The route to consider if you expect to keep the hire with you past the 18-month-in-36-months limit that applies to temporary-work-agency-classified staffing, or if you want to sponsor a work permit yourself rather than check a vendor’s KRAZ-registration age.
• A PEO. Co-employment alongside an entity you already have, rather than the EOR standing in as the sole legal employer. Papaya Global publishes a separate Poland PEO product alongside its EOR; see our PEO glossary entry and EOR vs PEO for how the liability split differs.

What changed in 2026

• 2026-01-01 — Minimum wage rises to PLN 4,806/month gross (from PLN 4,666), fixed for the whole year.
• 2026-01-01 — The 30x annual cap on emerytalna and rentowa contributions rises to PLN 282,600 (from PLN 260,190).
• 2026-01-01 — ZFŚS basic write-off per employee rises to PLN 2,943.23, relevant for any employer, including an EOR, with 50+ FTE on 1 January.
• 2026-04-01 — A new wypadkowa (accident-insurance) contribution year begins, running to 2027-03-31.

Numbers vendors haven’t updated

• Skuad states the Polish minimum wage as PLN 4,300/month on its Poland page; the current rate is PLN 4,806/month, effective 2026-01-01 (zielonalinia.gov.pl, checked 2026-10-01).

How we built this page

Facts were collected and checked on 2026-10-01 against Polish government and legal sources (zielonalinia.gov.pl, gov.pl, eli.gov.pl, Kodeks pracy text mirrors) and, for the 2025 agency-market reform, a Polish law firm’s briefing alongside the amending act. Vendor entity claims were checked against the KRS company registry where one could be found — Deel’s, Remote’s and Boundless’s Polish entities are all on record there — and against the vendor’s own Poland-facing page otherwise; where a vendor states only a global entity model, we recorded Poland as not disclosed rather than assuming. The ranking above puts confirmed, Poland-specific own entities first. Nobody pays for placement on this page.