Severance pay calculator for Poland - redundancy, retirement and death benefit

If you are dismissed for reasons not related to you (your position is eliminated, the company cuts jobs or goes bankrupt) and your employer has at least 20 staff, you are entitled to severance under Art. 8 of the Act of 13 March 2003 on collective redundancies. It applies to foreign employees on a Polish employment contract (umowa o pracę) exactly as to Poles. The amount depends on service with this employer:

The payment cannot exceed 15 times the minimum wage on the day the contract ends. In 2026 the minimum wage is PLN 4,806, so the cap is PLN 72,090. Example: with a PLN 30,000 salary and 10 years of service, severance would be PLN 90,000, but only PLN 72,090 is paid. Severance also applies to individual dismissals and to termination by mutual agreement when the employer's reasons are the only cause.

When your employment ends because you retire or start receiving a disability pension, Art. 92¹ of the Labour Code gives you one month of pay. No minimum service is required. You get it only once in your life: if you received it when moving to a disability pension, you will not get it again on retirement. Collective agreements and sector rules (for teachers, local government staff and others) often grant more, for example 2 or 3 months after long service; the more favourable rule applies.

When an employee dies, the spouse and other relatives entitled to a survivor's pension receive a death benefit (Art. 93 Labour Code): 1 month of pay for service under 10 years, 3 months for at least 10 years and 6 months for at least 15 years. It is shared equally among all eligible relatives, but if only one person is eligible, they receive half. Example: salary PLN 6,000 and 12 years of service give a full benefit of PLN 18,000; a widow alone gets PLN 9,000, a widow with two children PLN 6,000 each. No benefit is due if the employer insured the employee's life and the insurance payout is not lower.

On PLN 16,000 of redundancy pay the employer withholds about PLN 1,920 (12%), so around PLN 14,080 reaches your account. The calculator shows an estimate; the exact advance depends on your other income in the year. To work out how long you will still be employed, use the notice period calculator, and for unused days off see the unused vacation pay calculator.