40-year-old, this is how your future may look. There is nothing to enjoy

Structure of the amount of pensions and disability pensions after March valorisation in 2025. reveals a financial landscape in which today there are over 8 million Polish seniors. And at the same time, the projection of what awaits more millions of people who are in the prime of age today and are 30 or 40 years old.

Although nominally these amounts in 2045 or 2050 will be much higher, but in relation to the average salary will remain at the same, quite miserable level.

Data published by the Social Insurance Institution pay attention to the unevenness and difficulties that the older generation is measured.

According to ZUS data, the average pension increased last year by nearly PLN 300, currently amounting to PLN 4,000. PLN 45 20 gross. At first glance, it may seem relatively a lot, because on hand it means more or less as the minimum wage in Poland in 2025.

Details of the ZUS report show that it is for The vast majority of pensioners are a level beyond their reach. It is worth noting the differences between men and women's benefits: while the average amount of men's pension is over PLN 4,900, in the case of women it is only PLN 3,500.

The differences do not end with medium. The key is the median data, i.e. the point where half of the people receive benefits below a given amount. The median pensions are PLN 3544 PLN 38 gross, while in the case of women it is only PLN 3011. In turn, half of pensioners – often in a better financial position than pensioners – It has a benefit of PLN 4,500 or higher.

Particularly noteworthy is the dramatic aspect of the report: up to 25 percent women must survive for PLN 2269 per month or less. Among men, every fourth pensioner has less than PLN 3363 at his disposal. This means huge financial challenges for many older Poles who face the high costs of life and often the need to support younger family members.

See also: Half of seniors live for less than 3.5 thousand. PLN gross per month. Alarming data

You earn 15,000 zloty? You can't feel calm

If you are in the prime of age today, you earn a lot of money in a good position and you think that retirement problems do not concern you, then you may be surprised. A few weeks ago, Łukasz Kozłowski from the Federation of Polish Entrepreneurs showed this on specific numbers. He tried to estimate in Business Insider Polska how much you need to earn today to get 3 or 5 thousand. PLN pension for 20-25 years.

– The calculation of the potential pension of the person at the age of 40 is difficult because it depends not only on our future earnings, but also on how much we earned (and what contributions we paid – ed.) In the past. This is of course an individual matter, so in the case of each person the actual result may be slightly different – he adds.

Below, however, we present the estimates that Kozłowski based on a number of assumptions.

The above amounts show that in retirement, the 40-year-olds will have to deal with much less than half of their salary. Especially women. Even if today they earn 15,000 PLN per month, in old age they will be able to count only just over 5,000. PLN pension. A man with such earnings will get over 8,000 PLN benefits from ZUS.

The difference is colossal. All because he works five years longer. So he postpones the contributions five years longer, and he automatically charges the pension for five years shorter. Pure mathematics.

It is worth emphasizing, however, that if a woman decided to work until 65. (And not a statutory 60) year, the last column would apply to her in the above table.

– The results of my calculations very clearly indicate how great importance for the amount of our pension is the age at which we retire. In many cases, we can earn up to twice less, if we retire 5 years later, we can earn a certain amount of pension. This is especially important in the case of women who will be difficult in the future to obtain a higher pension in many cases, if they do not decide to retire later – explains Łukasz Kozłowski.

Another way to raise your pension is to voluntarily and systematically postpone money. There are plenty of ways to do that. However, we wrote about this in another material on Business Insider Polska.

Penny pensions new “normal”

Let's return to today's reality. The minimum retirement, which from 2025 is PLN 1878 91 gross per month, is also not guaranteed to everyone. To receive it, a work experience is necessary for at least 20 years for women and 25 years for men. Failure to meet these requirements results in significantly lower, sometimes even symbolic benefits.

As indicated by ZUS data, the number of people receiving the so -called Penny pensions are growing at an alarming rate. Currently 437.9 thousand people receive benefits lower than the statutory minimum retirement value, which means an increase of 8.4 percent. during the year. As ZUS emphasizes in the published document, this problem is gaining larger and larger size, and in the group of the most injured seniors there are those who have worked for years, among others “Black” or on civil law contracts.

This number will increase at an alarming rate. According to Łukasz Kozłowski, the chief economist of the Federation of Polish Entrepreneurs, in 20-25 years a large part of pensioners will receive the lowest possible benefit. Of course, assuming that they will work the required internship.

The situations of people at the lowest levels of the pension ladder are particularly dramatic. Today, benefits at the level of PLN 500 per month or less receives 27.7 thousand. Poles. In the case of 8,000 people transferred from ZUS funds do not exceed even PLN 100. Most often they are people with minimal or sporadic work experience who did not accumulate sufficient retirement capital.

These numbers, although cool and impersonal, show real dilemmas and dramas of hundreds of thousands of Polish seniors. Unfortunately, there will be more and more of these every year.