In both a contract of mandate (“umowa-zlecenie”) and an employment contract (“umowa o pracę”), your employer deducts essentially the same contributions from your salary. The only difference is that in a contract of mandate, sickness insurance is voluntary.
Only if working under a contract for specific work is an additional occupation for us, and besides that, we have another job (under an employment contract or another contract of mandate) and earn an amount higher than the minimum wage from the second contract, we only pay a health insurance contribution for that job.
| Contributions deducted from your salary | Contributions paid by the employer/principal |
| pension insurance (partially) disability insurance (partially) health insurance sickness insurance (voluntary on contract of mandate) | pension insurance (partially) disability insurance (partially) accident insurance Labour Fund* Guaranteed Employee Benefits Fund* |
The only form of contract that is not subject to contributions is a contract for specific work (umowa o dzieło). Working under such a contract does not give you the right to health insurance, accident insurance, pension or compensation for an accident at work.
You can calculate the exact amount of contributions for your type of contract and salary using a salary calculator. The employer is obliged to pay all contributions and, upon your written request, provide you with information on how much they have paid to the ZUS and the NFZ (in the form of monthly information for the insured person – RMUA).
What rights do you gain by paying contributions?
By working legally on a contract, you gain access to the rights that all employed people have, namely:
- Health contribution – health insurance: by paying a health contribution you can benefit from free public health care. You will not be charged for emergency medical care.
- Disability contribution – disability insurance: in case of an accident that makes you no longer fit for work, you can count on a pension.
- Accident insurance – guarantees you the right to a pension, accidental sickness benefit and compensation.
- Sickness contribution – so you can take paid sick leave.
- Pension contribution – thanks to the fact that Poland has signed social security agreements with, among others, Ukraine and Belarus, your length of service and pension contribution earned in Poland count towards your pension in these countries of origin. Of course, this also applies to other countries with which Poland has concluded a similar agreement, as well as to the countries of the European Union and the European Economic Area.