Minimum wage 2027. The government is preparing more than just a raise. The counting rules will also change
Setting the minimum wage in 2027, as usual, arouses emotions and concerns 3 million employees. How much will it have to increase? It depends on who we ask.
In the background of the dispute over the amount of the increase, legislative work is also underway on a major change in the calculation of the minimum wage. The point is that various additions will disappear over the next three years. The higher the salary increase now, the more it will be felt by employees (positively) and employers (negatively) in the future. Here are the details.
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The Ministry of Labor recommends a PLN 180 increase
On Tuesday, the Ministry of Family, Labor and Social Policy announced that it would recommend it to the Council of Ministers minimum salary in 2027 in the amount of PLN 4,986. This is an increase of PLN 180 (3.7%). and more than the forecast inflation, as discussed in the following paragraphs. This proposal is to be discussed on Wednesday by the Standing Committee of the Council of Ministers, and on Tuesday, June 9, by the government.
Can the government offer more? It's unlikely. Agnieszka Dziemianowicz-Bąk, Minister of Labor, in a letter of May 18 this year. to the Social Dialogue Council calculated that the minimum salary next year should not be lower than PLN 4,927. Her final offer is still PLN 59 higher.
The proposal accepted by the government will go to negotiations at the Social Dialogue Council, which includes representatives of the government, trade unions and employers' organizations. RDS has until July 15 to present a joint proposal. If there is no compromise as in previous years, the government will set the minimum wage itself by September 15. However, it cannot be lower than the first proposal adopted by the Council of Ministers.
See also: This is how much you will definitely earn in 2027. The government has provided key data
Conflicting interests of trade unionists and employers
The Social Dialogue Council started talks on the minimum wage in mid-May. However, talks in the Problem Team for Budget, Wages and Social Benefits did not lead to a common position.
Three trade unions: NSZZ “Solidarność”, OPZZ and the Trade Union Forum (FZZ) unanimously proposed that next year's the minimum salary was at least PLN 5,200 gross. This is an increase of 9.2%. (PLN 394) year to year, but also by 4.29%. (PLN 214) more than the proposal of the Ministry of Labor.
In turn, employers want the minimum wage to amount to PLN 4,860.47 gross in 2027, an increase of 1.13%. (PLN 54.47) of the current rate, and much less than what trade unionists and the Ministry of Labor want.
Employers expect the lowest possible raise
Employers argue that the increase in the minimum wage they propose results from the applicable law. It guarantees an annual increase in the minimum wage to an extent not lower than the increase in the total prices of consumer goods and services forecast for a given year. At the same time, if in the first quarter of the year in which negotiations take place, the minimum wage is lower than half of the average wage in the national economy, this guarantee is additionally increased by two-thirds of the forecast real GDP growth rate.
Agnieszka Dziemianowicz-Bąk explains in a letter to RDS that the current minimum salary (PLN 4,806) is 50.3 percent. the average salary (PLN 9,562.88). This is more than 50 percent, so the algorithm for calculating the statutory minimum for 2027 does not take into account the projected GDP growth. Even then According to Dziemianowicz-Bąk, the minimum wage should be higher than employers expect and amount to at least PLN 4,903. In her opinion, however, additionally, in accordance with the act, it should increase at a rate no lower than the inflation forecast for the next year, and therefore cannot be lower than PLN 4,927. Only then will the minimum increase by 2.5%, i.e. by the same amount as the forecast inflation.
In the background there is a fight for an important change in the rules for calculating the minimum wage
In accordance with applicable regulations, the minimum wage also includes other components, e.g. functional allowances, bonuses, awards. However, this will change.
Work on the new regulations is already advanced and is ongoing in two ways. Firstly, the first reading took place at the last session of the Sejm the Left's project on minimum wage.
Secondly, the Ministry of Labor headed by Agnieszka Dziemianowicz-Bąk is working on an almost identical project. Both projects aim to ensure that various allowances, bonuses and awards are not included in the minimum wage. Sending the parliamentary bill to first reading caused the government to accelerate work on the ministerial bill. The Standing Committee of the Council of Ministers is to discuss it on Wednesday, June 3. In a word, the October 15 Coalition sends a signal that the changes will be adopted soon, because the differences are minor.
The left wants the allowances not to increase the minimum wage from 2027. According to the government's project, the changes will be spread over three years. From January 1, 2027, functional allowances will not be included in the minimum salary, from 2028 – other allowances, and from 2029 – bonuses and awards. And as Katarzyna Ueberhan, an MP from the Left, declares, if the government bill reaches the Sejm, it will be considered together with the parliamentary bill.
The dispute is not whether, but when. The changes are the result of the EU directive on adequate minimum wages in the European Union, which should be implemented by November 2025. This did not happen because Denmark appealed against the directive to the CJEU. In the judgment of November 11, born confirmed that the Union has the competence to adopt provisions on a European minimum wage. Poland therefore has no choice.
The effects of the change will be borne by both public institutions and the private sector. “However, it is difficult to estimate the number of enterprises due to the lack of data sources,” we read in the Regulatory Impact Assessment of the government project. However, it was estimated that the number of employees whose basic salary is lower than the minimum is approximately 716,000. people.
