Reviewed September 2026

Overtime pay in Poland: how to check you were paid correctly

Polish law sets exactly what an extra hour is worth. If your payslip does not match, it is not a rounding error — someone owes you money. Work out the difference below.

What an overtime hour is worth

You get your normal hourly pay for the hour worked, PLUS a supplement on top of it. The supplement is either 50% or 100%, and which one depends only on when the hour fell.

When you worked it	Supplement
Beyond the daily norm on an ordinary working day	50%
At night	100%
On a Sunday or public holiday that was not your scheduled working day	100%
On a day off given in exchange for working a Sunday or holiday	100%

The supplement is on top of the normal rate, not instead of it. An hour at the 50% rate pays 1.5x your hourly rate in total, and at 100% it pays double.

The limits your employer has to respect

The daily norm is 8 hours, and the weekly norm averages 40 hours across the settlement period.
Overtime for the employer’s particular needs is capped at 150 hours a year per person. A collective agreement, work regulations or your own contract may set a different number — check yours.
Including overtime, your working week cannot average more than 48 hours across the settlement period.
You are owed at least 11 uninterrupted hours of rest after every working day, and 35 hours in every week.

Night work is paid twice over

Night is an eight-hour window falling between 21:00 and 07:00; your employer fixes the exact hours in the work regulations or your contract, so check which they picked.

Every night hour carries a night supplement of at least 20% of the hourly rate derived from the minimum wage — in 2026 that comes from 4806 zł gross a month, and from 1 January 2027 from 4950 zł. This is separate from the overtime supplement: a night hour that is ALSO overtime earns both.

How to check your own payslip

Add up the hours you actually worked in the month — start time, end time, minus unpaid breaks.
Subtract the hours you were contracted for. What is left is overtime.
Split those hours by when they fell: ordinary weekday hours at 50%, night, Sunday and holiday hours at 100%.
Multiply and compare with what you were actually paid. Enter the gap in the calculator above to see what it adds up to over a year.

Common questions

My employer gave me time off instead of paying. Is that allowed?

Yes, time off in lieu is legal instead of the supplement. But if you ask for it yourself you get one hour off per overtime hour; if the employer decides without your request, you are owed an hour and a half. The normal pay for the hour is still due either way.

Does overtime apply to umowa zlecenie?

The overtime supplements above come from the Labour Code and apply to an employment contract (umowa o pracę). A civil-law contract is governed by what the contract itself says, so read yours — though the minimum hourly rate of 31.40 zł gross still applies to zlecenie by law.

What if I am not on the payroll at all?

Undeclared work leaves you with fewer written proofs, not fewer rights. Keep your own record of every shift — dates, start and end times, who asked you to stay. That record is what turns a disagreement into a case.

How far back can I claim?

Employment claims in Poland generally expire three years from the day the payment became due. Do not sit on it.

This page explains the general rules and is not legal advice. Your contract, collective agreement or work regulations may set terms more favourable than the statutory minimum. For a dispute, the National Labour Inspectorate (PIP) advises workers free of charge.