Polish parliament approves bill mandating salary disclosure in job adverts

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Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and is published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.

Poland’s parliament has approved amendments to the labour code that would require employers to provide prospective job applicants with information on salaries and benefits, as part of efforts to increase pay transparency and align with forthcoming EU regulations on pay equity.

The bill also mandates gender-neutral language in job advertisements and non-discriminatory recruitment processes.

Under the bill, authored by members of Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s centrist Civic Coalition (KO), employers would be legally required to provide information on remuneration and benefits during the recruitment process.

Specifically, employers must disclose salary details in the job advertisement, or – if the position was not publicly advertised – before the job interview or, at the latest, prior to signing the employment contract.

Additionally, job postings and titles must also be gender-neutral and recruitment procedures must be conducted without any form of discrimination. The proposed changes also eliminate the requirement for job candidates to disclose information about their prior remuneration, to protect employee privacy.

Lawmakers argue the changes would help job seekers negotiate employment conditions with greater confidence and promote pay equity, particularly in addressing gender-based disparities.

“The law puts workers‘ and employers’ rights on an equal footing,” said Witold Zembaczyński, a KO MP behind the bill, in a video posted on X.

The bill was originally approved by the Sejm, the more powerful lower house of parliament, on 9 May, when 228 MPs – mainly from Tusk’s ruling coalition and the small left-wing Together (Razem) party – voted in favour.

Twelve MPs from the far-right Confederation (Konfederacja) voted against it while almost all MPs from the national-conservative Law and Justice (PiS), the main opposition party, abstained.

Confederation justified its opposition to the bill by arguing that it contains vague terms that could “pose a threat to both employees and employers”, reports news website Interia.

One of its MPs, Witold Tumanowicz, warned that the measures could in fact violate workers’ privacy and expose companies to competitive disadvantages by making levels of pay public knowledge.

The bill then moved to the upper-house Senate, which proposed changes to clarify the provisions. Yesterday, when it returned to the Sejm, an overwhelming majority of MPs – from the ruling coalition, PiS and Together – voted to keep the changes proposed by the Senate.

Eight MPs, mainly from Confederation, voted to reject them. This meant that the legislation was approved and the bill will now go to Andrzej Duda, a PiS ally, who can sign it into law, veto it, or send it to the constitutional court for assessment.

The move is part of broader efforts to align with EU rules on pay transparency, which Poland is required to implement by June 2026. It also comes amid high support for greater openness around salaries.

A majority of Poles, 61%, favour pay disclosure as part of firms’ internal transparency policies and nearly half of employers are already using salary ranges in job adverts, according to the latest “Polish Labour Market Barometer” by Personnel Service, a consultancy firm, cited by the Dziennik Gazeta Prawna daily.

Poland has for a long time had one of the lowest unemployment rates in the EU (hitting a record low and the lowest in the EU in January). The country also has the EU’s lowest level of labour market slack – a measure of unmet demand for labour, showing the proportion of people willing to work but unable to find a job.

Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.

Main image credit: Sora Shimazaki / Pexels

Alicja Ptak

Alicja Ptak is senior editor at Notes from Poland and a multimedia journalist. She previously worked for Reuters.