Will Pay Transparency Drive Employees Away From Regular Employment Contracts?

As Poland awaits new regulations on wage equality and pay transparency, experts warn that excluding non-standard contracts could inadvertently encourage workers to quit traditional employment.

Employees Await Wage Equality and Transparency

Although the transposition deadline for European Parliament and Council Directive (EU) 2023/970 of May 10, 2023—aimed at strengthening the application of the principle of equal pay for equal work or work of equal value through pay transparency mechanisms and enforcement—has already passed, Polish employees are still waiting for the introduction of regulations regarding pay equality and transparency during employment. Workers are largely anticipating these rules because they expect them to positively impact their employment conditions. While it is clear to most interested parties that there will not be a payroll list for all company employees, and equality will not mean identical pay for all colleagues in equivalent positions, high expectations remain surrounding the ongoing legislative work.

The System Will Be Transparent and Accessible to Every Employee

The directive requires employers to have pay structures ensuring equal pay for equal work or work of equal value. Employers must provide their employees with easy access to criteria used to determine pay, pay levels, and pay progression, which must be objective and gender-neutral. Simply put, once the directive is implemented, every employee should easily be able to find out why they earn what they earn, what to do to earn more, what development and promotion opportunities exist, and how their pay progression will look.

Regulations Will Cover Only Employees

According to Article 2 of the directive, it applies to all workers with an employment contract or employment relationship as defined by national law, collective agreements, or practice, taking into account Court of Justice case law. Recital 18 states that it applies to part-time workers, fixed-term workers, temporary agency workers, and management personnel, as well as domestic workers, on-call workers, intermittent workers, platform workers, sheltered workers, and trainees, provided they meet relevant criteria. Determining the existence of an employment relationship must be based on facts regarding actual work performance rather than how the parties describe their relationship.

Will Pay Equality Push Employees Out of Regular Contracts?

Consequently, individuals working on mandate contracts (umowa zlecenia) or business-to-business (B2B) arrangements will remain outside the pay equality and transparency system. In practice, this means employees in many companies still will not have a full picture of the compensation levels of others performing the same work. In most companies, a single team includes individuals bound to the employer by different legal relationships, and introducing these regulations will not change that if pay levels differ. Furthermore, there is a risk that employees may be encouraged to resign from standard employment contracts precisely so their compensation can move beyond the boundaries set by job evaluation categories.