This article is a part of Poland Unpacked. Weekly intelligence for decision-makers
The main sources were surveys, which always raise questions about representativeness. We also have data from Statistics Poland (GUS) on earnings across individual sectors, but these figures lumped together all professions within a given industry.
That is why the arrival of the “Data Blender” should be welcomed. The system was designed, implemented and is operated by a team of experts at the Regional Labor Office in Rzeszów, acting on behalf of the labor minister.
It publicly presents data on salaries under employment contracts by profession, based on administrative data from Poland’s Social Insurance Institution (ZUS). Since May 2021, employers have been required to provide an occupational code when filing declarations for newly hired employees and when correcting data for existing staff. There are more than 3,000 professions listed under the official Classification of Occupations and Specializations, but within the Data Blender they are aggregated into 213 professions.
Top 10 highest-paid professions
Interactive chart The table presents the 10 highest-paid professions under employment contracts in the first half of 2025. Doctors top the ranking, with average gross monthly earnings of PLN 17,500 (EUR 4,100). They are followed by software developers, earning PLN 16,900 gross (EUR 3,950), senior government officials on PLN 16,500 (EUR 3,860), and managing directors and chief executives, with gross pay of PLN 16,300 (EUR 3,810).
The top 10 also includes department managers, database specialists, computer-systems analysts and testers, lawyers, data analysts and air-traffic controllers. I included only professions accounting for more than 0.5% of the total workforce. This threshold excludes mining engineers, mediators, ceramic-technology engineers and food technologists. Otherwise, they would also have made the top 10.
An employment contract is not the whole picture
This does not mean, however, that doctors’ average earnings amount to PLN 17,500 (EUR 4,100). The figures cover only income from standard employment contracts. Doctors also work under other arrangements, including self-employment, mandate contracts and other forms of engagement. The Data Blender also provides the share of each contract type relative to all contracts or business arrangements recorded for a given profession during the period under review. For doctors, employment contracts accounted for 43%, self-employment for 38%, and mandate contracts for 19%.
Explainer
Employment contract (UoP) vs B2B
This is one of the most important and contentious issues in the Polish labor market - the tension between “traditional” employment contracts (umowa o pracę) and self-employment/contractor arrangements (B2B, business-to-business contracts) or task contracts (umowa zlecenie). It affects huge numbers of workers, especially in IT, consulting, and professional services.
Many Polish companies, especially in IT and professional services, essentially require B2B arrangements even for roles that are really full-time employment in everything but name. You work exclusively for one company, in their office, with their equipment, following their schedule - but legally you're a “contractor.” Or, you may chose a “task contract” which is – generally speaking – a middle ground between full employment and pure self-employment and is governed by civil law.
This is technically illegal – it’s often referred to in Polish as disguised employment or junk-contracts (umowy śmieciowe). Labor courts have ruled that if the relationship looks like employment, it should be treated as employment regardless of the contract type. But enforcement is the difficult part.
Among the 10 highest-paid professions, the highest share of employment contracts was, unsurprisingly, among senior officials and public-office holders, where they accounted for 86%. The proportion was also relatively high – between 71% and 77% - for managers, data analysts and database specialists.
Four professions in the top 10 stood out for their high share of self-employment arrangements: air-traffic operations personnel – including pilots, flight attendants and air-traffic controllers – at 52%; software developers at 50%; lawyers at 45%; and doctors at 38%. The medical profession also recorded the highest share of mandate contracts, at 19%.
The most common professions
The table below presents the 10 most common professions in Poland. According to Data Blender figures for the first half of 2025, there were 757,000 sales assistants and cashiers, making them the country’s largest occupational group. What stands out is the high share of mandate contracts among cleaning staff (40%) and manual workers (36%).
Interactive chart The occupational classification does not include a separate category for “entrepreneur”. Many business owners are instead grouped under the category “managing directors of entities/institutions”, which explains the high share of self-employment arrangements within this group. It also includes, however, positions such as library managers and bank-branch managers. The average salary from employment contracts shown in the table relates to this broader category.
The best data available, though not flawless
Although the database used in this analysis is the best currently available for occupational data, it is worth noting several shortcomings. For example, not all employers have yet updated their employee records, meaning the dataset is not fully representative, even if it is already extensive. According to the database, 11.8m people were in work in the first half of the year.
Moreover, the figures exclude individuals who exceeded the annual cap on social-security contributions – the so-called “30-times average salary” threshold. This depresses average earnings in some professions, although the effect is less pronounced in the first half of the year than in the second. Even so, the quality of the database should improve over time.