The Gremi Personal analytics center has published the results of a large-scale sociological study titled "Rates, Employment Schemes, and the Fear of Consequences," conducted among 600 foreign workers who are currently working in Poland or worked there within the last three years through employment agencies and intermediaries. The key finding: 69% of respondents had personally encountered, at least once, an opaque practice related to the formation of their rate or the structuring of their pay. A further 57.8% had experienced two or more such situations. Most often, workers cited unexpected deductions, "bonuses" in place of an official rate, and an incomprehensible calculation of taxes and contributions. The survey included citizens of Ukraine, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova, Colombia, India, the Philippines, Nepal, and Uzbekistan, aged 18 and over.
The More Agencies, the Higher the Risk of Pay "Surprises"
The study revealed a clear correlation between the number of agencies an employee had worked with and the likelihood of encountering opaque schemes. Among those who had worked with only one agency, 44% of respondents reported such an experience. The figure rose to 74.5% among workers with experience of two to four agencies and reached 88.9% among those who had dealt with five or more intermediaries. This indicates that repeatedly changing one's employer-intermediary not only fails to reduce the risks but multiplies them: each new contract may contain its own "pitfalls" in the calculation and payment of remuneration.
A High Rate Remains a Magnet, but Trust in It Is Melting
Despite the accumulated negative experience, a high rate remains one of the main factors when choosing a job: 64.3% of respondents rated its influence on their decision at 4–5 out of 5. However, work experience in Poland gradually changes attitudes toward such offers. 74.5% of respondents noted that over time they have become more cautious in treating vacancies with noticeably higher pay. This is especially pronounced among workers with three or more years of experience: 95.2% of them either choose a fully transparent vacancy or are willing to consider a high rate only after receiving a written explanation of it and the opportunity to verify exactly how it is formed. In addition, 63.8% of experienced workers always or almost always check the agency and the working conditions before agreeing to a vacancy, whereas among those who have been working in Poland for less than three years, only 28.9% do so.
The Fear of Deportation as an Additional Factor of Caution
Workers' caution is linked not only to the financial side of the issue. 44.5% of respondents had heard, in their circle, stories about return decisions, re-entry bans, or cases that the workers themselves described as "deportation." In the respondents' view, opaque employment arrangements create a real risk of legal consequences that go far beyond lost money. This is precisely why, as Gremi Personal analysts note, experienced candidates increasingly check not only the figure in the advertisement but also the agency itself, the contract, registration with ZUS, the content of the documents, and the legal cleanliness of the paperwork.
What This Means for the Labor Market
Gremi Personal analysts conclude that a turning point in the competition for workers is arriving for employment agencies. "The attempt to lure workers solely with a higher rate is gradually losing its effectiveness. If the difference in pay has no clear written explanation, the highest rate begins to be perceived as a possible risk signal," the researchers note. Thus, the competitive advantage for agencies is no longer the maximum amount in the advertisement, but the ability to prove that the stated salary is real, transparent, and will not cause the worker problems in the future. Against this backdrop, the enhanced inspections of foreign workers' labor contracts, which have been carried out in Poland since 8 July 2026, are particularly relevant: upon finding actual employment on the company's staff, the inspections transfer workers onto official labor contracts.
Contradictory Data
The study contains an internal tension between two key indicators. On the one hand, 64.3% of respondents still rank a high rate first when choosing a vacancy (4–5 out of 5), indicating the continuing dominance of the financial factor. On the other hand, 74.5% have become more cautious, and 95.2% of experienced workers demand a written explanation of the rate. These data do not directly contradict each other, but they point to a split in behavior: financial motivation formally remains the leading one, yet in practice an increasing number of workers are building a multi-level verification system, turning the "high rate" from an argument "for" into a potential trigger for additional verification. A methodological caveat deserves separate attention: the sample was formed using quotas by citizenship and work experience, rather than by simple random sampling. For a simple random sample of this size, the maximum theoretical error would be about ±4 percentage points at a 95% confidence level; however, due to the quota-based nature of the sample, this figure is only a statistical benchmark, not a strict error boundary.
Context: How Much Is Actually Paid in Poland
To assess whether a "high" rate in an advertisement is adequate, it is useful to turn to official data. According to information provided in the same material, in February 2026 the average salary in Poland was 9,966 zloty gross, while half of workers earned no more than 7,690 zloty. Pay is significantly higher in the mining and digital sectors, whereas in small companies salaries are well below the average. Workers processing agricultural products on conveyor lines — as can be seen in photos from Polish processing plants, where employees in green uniforms and head coverings sort and pack produce — are generally at the lower end of this range, which makes any "surprises" in the rate calculation especially painful.
