Ukrainians, who are now forced to live in Poland for some time due to the war and have to adjust their lives, are undoubtedly primarily interested in how much they will be able to earn in this country. Unfortunately, few of them are waiting for delicious jobs with the coolest earnings - not everyone knows Polish thoroughly, have the most necessary professions at the moment and the appropriate qualifications. Not to mention the very lively competition in the domestic labor market among locals.

So it will be important for most to know what is the minimum wage level they can count on? To date, the law on the regulation of the minimum wage has been adopted in 21 EU countries out of 27. In Poland - as well. Next, let's talk about it and compare it with other members of the eurozone, so you can immediately choose the most profitable in this sense.

The level of the minimum wages in Poland as of April 2022

From January 1 this year, the Polish government raised the minimum wage to 3010 zlotys gross. So, after paying taxes, there will be something like PLN 2,363.57 left.

In fact, it is not about increasing employee welfare, but about compensating for inflation (7.8% at the end of 2021) and some redistribution of taxes: RIT will not be levied on employees (-17%), but 9% of health insurance is added. As a result, real income will increase by only 125 zlotys.

Is it possible to survive in Poland for a minimum wage?

VisitUkraine has repeatedly spoken about the amounts, other compensations and benefits supported by the Polish government of our refugees - we think it is not worth reminding. Especially since when you get a job, much of the help will stop coming. Let's calculate together how much it costs to live in Poland for a month, and how much we will have left if we could only go to the minimum wage? And will there be anything left at all?

At once we will notice that we will speak about "minimum social", instead of about "minimum egzystencji" (in economy of the country both concepts in circulation), after all the second is such absolutely minimum minimorum: without expenses for communication and transport, culture. , recreation and sports, and everything else there is very modest. And yet: the cost of "housing" does not mean rent, but the payment of utilities - for rent we will talk separately.

The national average is PLN 1,186.34 per able-bodied person and PLN 1,167.65 per pensioner. One mother with a child, strangely, but not separately, but, for example, for two people with a small child is calculated 2951.63, and for the same two, but with a teenager - 3133.91.

Counting (1 adult) includes:

• food (289.83),

• housing (418.37),

• footwear and clothing (55.41),

• medical expenses (43.25),

• personal hygiene products (37,19),

• upbringing and education (17.50),

• transport and communications (88.71),

• sports (87.88),

• cultural expenses and rest (148.20).

It is clear that in each voivodship these indicators differ. According to the calculated indices, the highest value of the social minimum is in the voivodships (from the most expensive to the relatively cheapest): Dolnośląskie, Lubuskie, Zachodniopomorskie, Pomorskie, Wielkopolskie and Śląskie. And the lowest (from the cheapest and above) - in Lubelskie, Podkarpackie, Warmińsko-Mazurskie, Swiętokrzyskie, Mazowieckie and Podlaskie.

The rent is an additional minus of 700-2500 zlotys per month from the budget, depending on how big your family is and what the "comfortable / acceptable" balance means to you.

So, on average, for a single person the total monthly expenses will be 1886.34 zlotys, for a pensioner - 1867.65. And for two adults with a child, we will consider that they will have enough rent of a two-room apartment (it is about 1700 zlotys, of course, not in the center of Warsaw or Krakow - consider, for example, a large city in Kuyavian-Pomeranian, but good location, almost in the center ), it will be 4651.63 - 4833.91 zł. As you can see, the given minimum wage is enough for the eyes, it still remains to postpone a serious vacation or some unforeseen medical expenses and so on.

Poland vs other EU countries

It should be noted at once that the median income in Poland is much lower than in the leading, so to speak, rich members of the Union. On the other hand, the prices in the Republic of Poland are quite reasonable, as we saw above, so everything is more or less balanced. Then for the convenience of comparison - all in euros. We will give the gross value before taxes.

Below the rating opens Bulgaria - 332 euros / month. And the highest minimum is set in Luxembourg - that is 2257 euros. The heroine of our conversation today, Poland, by the way - 655 euros at the current exchange rate.

Worse than in Poland, apart from Bulgaria, Latvia (500), Romania (515), Hungary (542), Croatia (624), Slovakia (646), the Czech Republic (652) and Estonia (654). Lithuania, Greece, Malta and Portugal are better than Poland, but less than 1,000 euros. Germany, France, Belgium, the Netherlands and Ireland - in the group of 1500+ countries. Spain and Slovenia are somewhere between the last two blocs.

How to compare the ratio of the minimum wage and the consumer basket, taking into account tax expenditures, it turns out that Poland - in 9th place among EU countries. By the way, just by the level of payment - on the 13th. So, draw your own conclusions - whether it is profitable or not to live and earn in this country.