When Part of Your Salary Is Offered as "Benefits": What You Should Actually Check

Let us consider a situation that a candidate might encounter when taking up employment through a dishonest intermediary.

A job advertisement lists an attractive pay rate. The recruiter confirms the amount over the phone, explains the schedule and place of work. The person arrives, completes the paperwork, signs a umowa zlecenia - a civil law contract for the provision of services - and expects to start work within the next few days.

Then another document appears. It may be called a Regulamin benefitów, a regulamin świadczeń or something else entirely. The candidate is informed that part of their remuneration will be provided in the form of accommodation, meals, vouchers, transport or other "benefits".

Sometimes, after such a recalculation, the amount the person will actually receive into their account or in cash turns out to be considerably lower than what they had been led to expect during the recruitment process.

This is precisely the moment to stop listening to explanations about a "motivation system", "optimisation" or "company policy" and to look carefully at the documents.

Because under Polish law, what matters is not the name of a benefit, but how much money a person is entitled to receive for the work they have performed.

First, check exactly what you have signed

For someone working through an agency, it is critically important to understand the difference between a umowa o pracę and a umowa zlecenia.

• A umowa o pracę is an employment contract governed by the Polish Labour Code (Kodeks pracy).
• A umowa zlecenia is a civil law contract. A person working under such a contract is legally a zleceniobiorca - a service provider - and not an employee within the meaning of Polish labour law.

As a result, the set of rights and protective mechanisms available differs considerably.

This does not mean, however, that under a umowa zlecenia an agency or company may arbitrarily determine how much to actually pay per hour of work.

For contracts covered by the minimum hourly rate, the law sets a lower threshold of remuneration. In 2026, this amounts to PLN 31.40 gross per hour.

And this is where the most important issue begins.

The minimum rate must remain money

The Polish Act on Minimum Remuneration for Work explicitly provides that for every hour of performing a zlecenie, a person must receive at least the minimum hourly rate.

If the contract or the method of calculation applied produces a lower result, the zleceniobiorca is entitled to a top-up payment to the minimum level.

The Act also explicitly prohibits waiving the right to this portion of remuneration. Moreover, the payment of the amount corresponding to the minimum hourly rate must be made in monetary form. This is established by Article 8a, paragraphs 4 and 5 of the Act on Minimum Remuneration for Work.

A situation in which someone is told, in rough terms: "Your rate is formally X, but we will count the larger part as accommodation, meals and other benefits" therefore requires verification of the specific figures.

The mere existence of accommodation or meals does not in itself render such a model unlawful. The question is a different one: does the person receive the statutory minimum amount in the form of money.

For example, if a zleceniobiorca has worked 160 hours in a month, the statutory guarantee alone at the rate of PLN 31.40 amounts to PLN 5,024 gross. The value of accommodation, meals or any other offered benefits cannot simply be substituted for that portion of remuneration which the law requires to be paid in cash.

"You signed it yourself" does not always settle the matter

Dishonest practice often relies on the assumption that a person will not dispute the terms after signing an additional document.

The candidate has already spent money on travel, has arrived in a different city, has perhaps moved into agency-provided accommodation and is expecting their first payment. At this point, refusing the new terms is psychologically and financially more difficult than it would have been during the initial phone call with a recruiter.

This is why an additional document may be presented as a routine formality.

A signature does not, however, override statutory provisions from which the parties to a contract cannot derogate by their own agreement. If a specific umowa zlecenia is subject to the minimum hourly rate, the zleceniobiorca cannot legally waive the amount guaranteed by law.

This is precisely why it is necessary to look not only at the final figure printed in the contract, but also at the mechanism by which it is calculated.

How is the number of hours determined? What rate is applied? What amount will actually be transferred in cash? What will be deducted for accommodation? Are these payments a separate service, or have they already been included in the "remuneration"?

The answers should be clear before work begins.

Particular attention to timekeeping

Under a umowa zlecenia, the number of hours actually worked is of fundamental importance, since it is through this figure that compliance with the minimum hourly rate can be verified.

The law provides that the parties should specify the method for confirming the number of hours of performance of the zlecenie or the provision of services. If no such mechanism is included in the contract, the law prescribes an alternative procedure for documenting hours. Under certain agency work models, timekeeping may be maintained by the pracodawca użytkownik - the company for whose benefit the work is actually being performed.

Timesheets, electronic entry systems at the workplace, shift schedules, messages from the coordinator and other records of time worked may therefore carry significant weight in the event of a dispute.

An employee or zleceniobiorca would do well to keep their own records of hours worked, rather than relying solely on the data held by the agency.

The riskiest situation arises after the main contract has been signed

The very sequence in which documents are presented says a great deal.

If during the recruitment process you were told the rate and conditions, you then signed a contract, and only afterwards received a new document that materially changes the method of calculating your remuneration, that document requires particularly careful reading.

Pay close attention to wording relating to benefity, świadczenia, potrącenia, zakwaterowanie and wyżywienie.

It is equally important to check whether the document contains consent to the automatic deduction of various amounts, or an acknowledgement that certain services are considered to form part of the remuneration.

If the recruiter cannot give a straightforward explanation of how much money you will receive after a specific number of hours worked and what that amount consists of, the problem is no longer one of the complexity of Polish law. The problem lies in the lack of transparency in the offer itself.

And if you have a umowa o pracę

A umowa o pracę is subject to a different legal framework.

The Labour Code provides for remuneration to be paid in monetary form and separately regulates the possibility of partial payment in another form. It also protects the employee's right to their salary, sets out the rules for changing it and restricts the possibility of making deductions.

The rules applicable to a umowa o pracę must therefore not be conflated with those governing a umowa zlecenia.

For the individual, the practical conclusion is simple: the first thing to read in your documents is the name of the contract. It is this that determines which legal provisions will apply.

What to do before your first shift

1. Before starting work, photograph or save all signed documents. Do not leave the only copy of your contract with the agency.
2. Check the rate and the method of its calculation. If it is a umowa zlecenia, calculate how much monetary remuneration you receive per hour.
3. Separately, ask for an explanation of all payments for accommodation, transport, meals and other services. These should be clear in advance, not emerge for the first time after your first pay cheque.
4. If, after signing the main contract, you are given a new regulamin, aneks, oświadczenie or zgoda, do not treat it as a technical document. Check whether it changes the economic substance of the conditions already agreed.
5. Keep your correspondence with the recruiter and coordinator - especially messages in which the rate, schedule, cost of accommodation and conditions for starting work are stated.

A person who has come to work in Poland does not need to be a lawyer to understand one basic thing: after a given number of hours of work, they should be able to calculate clearly how much money they will receive in cash.

If, instead of a straightforward answer, a complicated structure of "benefits", internal regulations and notional service values appears, the documents must be checked before starting work.

This is especially important when these very benefits are being proposed as a substitute for a significant part of the remuneration.

Do you want to work without surprises in the paperwork, hidden conditions and opaque pay schemes? Gremi Personal vacancies, where the working conditions, rate and rules of settlement are known before the collaboration begins.

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