For many years, the structure of employment law in Poland has been characterized by a large number of civil law agreements, which serve as a substitute for employment contracts.  According to statistical data, up to 85 per cent of service providers in Poland historically have  been hired under civil law agreements, but not as a matter  of choice – they would have preferred to work under an employment contract[1].  Although there are many reasons for this situation, one of the principal ones has been the practice of circumventing the minimum monthly wage legislation, which applies only to employment contracts.

In order to minimize the negative effect of such practices on workers, as from 1 January 2017, the legislator introduced a new minimum hourly wage act (Journal of Laws 2016, item 1265).