Night, overtime and holiday work: which supplements you get in Poland

"Night shift — plus 20% to your rate." You hear it in every other warehouse, and almost everyone gets it wrong. Many believe the night supplement is twenty percent of their own hourly rate. It isn't. The Labour Code calculates it from the minimum wage, so a worker on 35 złoty an hour and one on 28 złoty get exactly the same extra for a night hour.

Below: what the law provides on an employment contract, how to work out your money, and why on umowa zlecenie everything depends on what the contract says.

Night supplement: 20% of the minimum-wage hourly rate

Night time means 8 hours between 21:00 and 7:00. Which 8 is set by the employer in the work regulations — most often 22:00–6:00. For every hour in that window you're owed a dodatek za pracę w nocy: 20% of the hourly rate derived from the minimum wage.

That hourly rate changes every month because it depends on the number of working hours in the month. Example: a month has 168 working hours. 4,806 zł ÷ 168 = 28.61 zł per hour. 20% of that is 5.72 zł extra for each night hour. Work 10 night shifts of 8 hours and that's about 458 zł on top.

An employer may pay more than the law requires. Then the supplement is written in the contract or pay rules — and that amount should appear on your payslip.

Overtime: when it's 50% and when it's 100%

Nadgodziny are hours beyond your daily norm (usually 8) or beyond the average weekly norm. On top of normal pay for each such hour, you get a supplement:

• 100% — for overtime at night, on Sundays and public holidays if they aren't your working days under the schedule, and on a day off given to you in exchange for working a Sunday or holiday.
• 50% — for all other overtime, e.g. when a weekday shift stretched from 8 to 10 hours.
• 100% for exceeding the weekly norm. If over the settlement period you worked more than 40 hours a week on average.

Instead of money, the employer may give time off: at your request — one hour for one hour; without your request — one and a half hours off for each overtime hour. The overtime limit is 150 hours a year unless the work regulations set another.

Working Sundays and public holidays

If a Sunday or holiday is a scheduled working day for you, it's not overtime. But the law requires another day off in return: for a Sunday — within six days before or after; for a holiday — within the settlement period. If a day off can't be given, every hour worked on that Sunday or holiday earns a 100% supplement.

Put simply: scheduled Sunday work is "paid" with a day off, not money. Money comes in when you didn't get the day off or when the Sunday was overtime.

What if you're on umowa zlecenie

The Labour Code doesn't apply to umowa zlecenie, so the law doesn't guarantee a night supplement or 50%/100% overtime. Only the minimum hourly rate applies — in 2026, 31.40 zł gross for every hour, day or night.

• A higher night rate. Possible if it's written into the contract or an annex.
• A verbal "night bonus". Can't be enforced if it's not on paper.
• Working like an employee. If you work fixed shifts, under a supervisor, full-time, it's effectively employment. A court can confirm that, and then supplements are due retroactively.

Checklist before a night shift

• Night hours. Find out which hours count as night at your company.
• Contract. Check whether a higher supplement than the legal minimum is written in.
• Records. Note the start and end of every shift, and separately the hours after 21:00.
• Payslip. Make sure night and overtime hours appear as separate lines.
• Day off for Sunday. If you worked a Sunday, ask when you'll get your day off.
• Zlecenie. Ask for the night rate in writing before your first shift.