Minimum wage 2025. Will there be a new value and additional indexation? All because of the inflation rate

Remember: in mid-June, the Council of Ministers adopted the proposal for a minimum wage and minimum hourly rate in 2025, at the value proposed by the Ministry of Family, Labor and Social Policy.

The proposed value of minimum remuneration for work from 1 January 2025, i.e. PLN 4,626, means an increase of PLN 326 compared to the value in force from 1 July 2024 (PLN 4,300), i.e. 7.6%.

Inflation and minimum wage forecast in 2025.

According to the Minimum Wage Law and in the third article we read that if the price index forecast for the next year is:

• At least 105 percent – ​​two dates are then set for changing the value of the minimum wage and the hourly rate: from January 1st and from July 1st
• Less than 105 percent – ​​a deadline is set for changing the amount of remuneration and the amount of the minimum hourly rate from January 1st.

• This means that with the previous assumption of inflation at 4.1% there was no need to consider additional indexation of the national minimum wage. Now, after the signing of the budget law, the situation has changed.

The government is expected to establish the minimum wage by regulation by September 15. According to unofficial reports from Prawa.pl, the ministry wonders whether the increase in the inflation forecast should automatically result in an increase in the minimum wage in 2025. If so, the new rate should increase by almost PLN 50.

Double indexation of the national minimum wage in 2025?

According to the portal’s experts, the Council of Ministers adopted the State’s Multi-Year Financial Plan and, in June, the assumptions for the 2025 budget were adopted based on it. In the WPFP, inflation was assumed at 4.1%. “When approving the budget bill, however, the Council of Ministers is not bound by these estimates, so a change was possible at the stage of adoption of the project,” it reads.

– A change in the price forecast is expected to affect the minimum wage. The update of the indicator at this stage was natural – one might say that we are half a year wiser. Therefore, the change in inflation forecast at the stage of approval of the budget bill seems to me more of a political problem than a legal and financial one, says Dr. Bartosz Kubista in an interview with Prawa.pl.

Kamil Sobolewski, chief economist of the Polish Employers’ Association, has a different opinion. He believes that increasing the inflation forecast does not result in an increase in the minimum wage for 2025. Why? Firstly, the implementation of the directive on an adequate minimum wage by 15 November, and secondly, the fact that the Law on the minimum wage itself indicates the inflation rate determined and submitted to the Social Dialogue Council by 15 June.

– Even if we insist that, despite the wording of the law and the reference to June 15, the level of the predicted inflation index changes something, then perhaps it could be considered that in the first semester this salary could be set lower than before – says Kamil Sobolewski.

Minimum wage 2025 gross and net

So far, the most likely rate is the one proposed by the government in June, i.e. an increase from PLN 4,300 gross to PLN 4,626 gross. The net minimum wage next year will be approximately PLN 3,484 in hand.

In turn, the minimum hourly rate proposed by the ministry for specific civil law contracts from 1 January 2025 is PLN 30.20, which means an increase of PLN 2.10 compared to the amount applicable from 1 July 2024 (PLN 28.10).