Pay Transparency in Polish Hiring: Salary Range, Past Pay Ban
Short answer: Since 24 December 2025 employers must tell candidates the pay or range in the advert, before the interview or before hiring, and may not ask about pay in current or previous jobs.
If you are looking for a job in Poland, there is a rule that already protects you in the hiring process: the employer must tell you the pay or pay range before negotiations, and may not ask what you earned in previous jobs. This applies since 24 December 2025. A wider EU pay transparency directive is also being brought into Polish law. This guide sets out what the Polish Labour Inspectorate (PIP) and the European Commission say. Facts are as of 15 October 2026.
What changed on 24 December 2025
The District Labour Inspectorate in Katowice (OIP, part of PIP) published a notice on 8 January 2026 about changes to the Labour Code. It says the new Article 18(3)(c) and related provisions, and an amendment to Article 22(1) §1 point 6, entered into force on 24 December 2025.
Pay information before you accept a job
Under Article 18(3)(ca) §1, the employer must give a job applicant for a given position:
- information about the pay, its starting level or its range, set on objective and gender-neutral criteria;
- the relevant provisions of a collective labour agreement or pay regulations, if the employer is covered by them.
When you must receive it
According to the PIP notice, the information must be given on paper or electronically, early enough for you to read it and negotiate knowingly:
- in the job advertisement; or
- before the job interview, if there was no advertisement or the information was not in it; or
- before the employment relationship begins, if it was not given earlier.
The employer must also keep job advertisements and job titles gender-neutral and run the recruitment without discrimination, using objective and merit-based criteria.
* Photos: "Desktop with laptop and calculator" and "Books, pencils, laptop, and iphone on a desk", Unsplash via Wikimedia Commons, CC0.
Employers may not ask about your past pay
The amendment to Article 22(1) §1 point 6 clarifies which personal data an employer may request from a candidate. An employer may ask about the course of previous employment, but not about the pay in the current or previous jobs. According to PIP, recruitment questions aimed at finding out how much you earned before are not allowed and are contrary to labour law.
In practice, if an interviewer asks "what is your current salary?", you are entitled to decline to answer. If you think a question breaks the rules, you can contact the Labour Inspectorate, which gives free advice. See our guide to the Labour Inspectorate.
The wider EU directive
Poland is also working on implementing EU Directive 2023/970 on pay transparency. The Ministry of Family, Labour and Social Policy said in a notice dated 24 June 2025 that the deadline for transposition is 7 June 2026 and that a special working group was set up on 5 December 2024.
In an explainer published on 5 June 2026, the European Commission summarises what the new rules will mean in the EU:
- employers must tell candidates the starting pay or range in the advertisement or before the interview, and may not ask about pay history;
- employees can ask for information on their own pay and on the average pay by gender for workers doing the same work or work of equal value;
- employers with at least 100 employees must publish information on the gender pay gap;
- if a report shows an unjustified gap of at least 5% between women and men, the employer must carry out a pay assessment;
- employees who suffer pay discrimination can claim compensation, and employers who fail their transparency duties must prove there was no discrimination.
We could not confirm from official sources that Poland has passed the full implementing law. The Polish items above on pay information in recruitment and the ban on asking about pay history are already in the Labour Code. The other items, such as pay-gap reporting, should be checked against the Polish act once it is published in the Journal of Laws.
What to do as a candidate
1. Read the advertisement for a pay figure or range. If it is not there, ask for it before the interview. 2. If the employer asks about your salary history, you can decline. The Labour Code excludes it from the data an employer may request. 3. Keep a note of the information you were given, for example the email with the range.
Frequently asked questions
Must a Polish employer state the salary in a job advert?
Since 24 December 2025 the employer must give the pay or range in the advert, before the interview, or at the latest before the employment starts, according to PIP.
Can an employer ask how much I earned before?
No. PIP says questions about pay in your current or previous jobs are not allowed.
Does the EU pay transparency directive apply in Poland already?
The directive's deadline was 7 June 2026. We could not confirm a full Polish implementing act. The recruitment rules above are already in the Labour Code.
Who do I contact if my employer breaks these rules?
You can ask the Labour Inspectorate (PIP), which provides free advice.
