Overtime in Poland: Rates, Limits and Time-Off Rules
Short answer: Overtime in Poland starts beyond 8 hours a day or an average 40 hours a week. It pays 100% at night and on non-working Sundays and holidays, 50% on regular working days, and is capped at 13 hours a day, an average 48 a week and 150 hours a year.
Polish labour law draws a hard line around the working week, and everything beyond it is overtime with its own pay rules, caps and paperwork. Whether you work in an office in Warsaw or a warehouse outside Łódź, the same Labour Code rules apply. Here is what counts as overtime, what it pays, and the limits that protect your rest, as of October 2026.
What counts as overtime
The baseline comes from the State Labour Inspection (PIP): working time may not exceed 8 hours a day and an average of 40 hours a week over the settlement period your employer uses (a month, quarter or year). The Ministry of Family, Labour and Social Policy defines overtime as work beyond those two norms - more than 8 hours in a day, or more than an average of 40 hours a week across the settlement period. Making up time off you took for personal matters does not count as overtime.
An employer may only order overtime in two situations: a rescue operation to protect life, health, property or the environment, or to fix a breakdown - or the employer's "special needs". That second, broad category is where everyday overtime lives, and it comes with a hard cap: 150 hours per employee per calendar year. A collective agreement, work rules or employment contract can set a different annual figure, but the weekly ceiling still applies.
The caps that protect your rest
The ministry lists three firm limits:
- 13 hours a day maximum. Because you are entitled to 11 hours of uninterrupted daily rest, your working day including overtime cannot exceed 13 hours.
- 48 hours a week on average. Total working time including overtime must not exceed an average of 48 hours over the settlement period (this does not cover managers running the workplace on the employer's behalf).
- 150 hours a year of special-needs overtime per employee, unless internal rules set a different number.
What overtime pays
Every overtime hour always earns your normal wage. On top of that, you get either a supplement or time off - and the choice of form belongs to the employer. The supplements:
- 100% of pay for overtime at night, on Sundays and public holidays that are not working days in your schedule, and for overtime that breaches the average 40-hour weekly norm.
- 50% of pay for overtime on days that are working days in your schedule (including "working" Sundays and holidays), and for overtime on a day off resulting from an average five-day working week.
If an overtime stretch breaks both the daily and the weekly norm, only one supplement is due.
Time off works two ways. If you ask for it (in writing or electronically), you receive the same number of hours off, and it can be granted even outside the settlement period. If the employer grants it without your request, you receive one and a half times the hours worked, but it must be given by the end of the settlement period. Employees who permanently work outside the workplace can have overtime replaced by a lump sum reflecting expected overtime.
Practical checklist
- Track your hours; overtime starts beyond 8 a day or an average 40 a week.
- Remember the daily ceiling: 13 hours total, because 11 hours of daily rest is untouchable.
- Check the rate: 100% at night and on non-working Sundays and holidays, 50% on regular working days.
- If you want time off instead of the supplement, request it in writing - that locks the 1:1 rate and flexible timing.
- Special-needs overtime is capped at 150 hours a year unless your workplace rules say otherwise.
- Overtime rules apply to employment contracts; civil-law mandate or task contracts are not covered by the Labour Code.
Frequently asked questions
### Can my employer order me to stay late whenever it wants?
Only in rescue or breakdown situations, or for the employer's special needs - and special-needs overtime is capped at 150 hours a year per employee, within the 13-hour daily and 48-hour average weekly ceilings.
Who decides whether I get money or time off?
The employer. But if you request time off yourself, you get one hour off per overtime hour; employer-initiated time off is one and a half hours per overtime hour and must fall within the settlement period.
I worked both late into the night and past the weekly norm. Do I get two supplements?
No. When overtime breaches the daily and weekly norms at once, only one supplement is due.
Do these rules cover umowa zlecenie contractors?
No. The overtime framework comes from the Labour Code and applies to employment relationships. Civil-law contracts pay whatever the contract says.
