Annual leave in Poland – 20 or 26 days? Rules after the 2026 seniority changes

The amount of annual leave is set by Article 154 of the Polish Labour Code and depends only on seniority:

Leave is granted for working days, in hours matching your daily working time – on a standard full-time contract one day of leave equals 8 hours. Weekends and public holidays that fall during your leave do not reduce your entitlement.

You are entitled to 26 days after 10 years of seniority. This does not mean 10 years on an employment contract. Leave seniority includes:

• all previous periods of employment under a Polish employment contract – regardless of breaks and how the contract ended,
• periods of secondary, post-secondary or higher education (see the next section),
• from 2026 – also periods of civil-law contracts and self-employment.

In practice, a university graduate starts with 8 years of leave seniority and is entitled to 26 days after 2 years of employment.

Under Article 155 of the Labour Code, the following periods of education count towards leave seniority:

• periods of education are not added together – only the most favourable completed school counts (secondary school plus university gives 8 years, not 12),
• the school must be completed – unfinished studies do not count as 8 years,
• if you worked under an employment contract while studying, either the study period or the employment period counts – whichever is more favourable.

Studied abroad? Ask your HR department which documents they need – a foreign diploma may require confirmation that it is equivalent to a Polish one.

Yes – this is the most important change of recent years. Under the Act of 26 September 2025 amending the Labour Code, seniority now includes, among others:

• periods of running a business (self-employment, B2B) and cooperating with a person running a business,
• periods of performing a mandate contract (umowa zlecenia), a contract for the provision of services or an agency contract,
• documented periods of paid work abroad other than employment,
• periods of suspended business activity for the purpose of personally caring for a child.

The new rules apply from 1 January 2026 at public finance sector employers and from 1 May 2026 at all other employers. They also cover periods before the change, including contracts from previous years.

These periods are confirmed by a certificate issued by ZUS (the Polish Social Insurance Institution). If ZUS cannot issue it (e.g. because too much time has passed), you can prove your seniority with your own documents, such as contracts and invoices. Give the certificate to your HR department so that your employer can take the longer seniority into account. Read more about civil-law contracts in our article on contract work in Poland.

The higher entitlement applies from the day you reach 10 years of seniority – not from the start of the next year. If you have already used part of your 20 days that year, you receive supplementary leave – the 6-day difference to use in the same year.

Anna graduated from university (8 years of seniority) and has worked on an employment contract since 1 October 2024. She reaches 10 years of seniority on 1 October 2026. From that day her leave for 2026 rises from 20 to 26 days – she can use 6 extra days in 2026, and from 1 January 2027 she gets the full 26 days.

In the calendar year in which you start your very first job, you earn leave gradually: after each month of work you acquire 1/12 of the annual entitlement. From 1 January of the following year you get the full annual entitlement up front.

The first weeks in a new company are often a probationary period – read what to keep in mind in our article on the probationary period.

Part-time employees get leave in proportion to their working time. Any incomplete day is rounded up to a full day.

If you change employer during the year, your leave is split proportionally. Your previous employer grants leave for the period worked there, and your new employer for the rest of the year. Any incomplete month is rounded up to a full month.

Example: with 26 days and a job change at the end of June, you are entitled to 6/12 of 26 days (13 days) from your old employer and another 13 days from the new one. If you leave without using your leave, your employer pays you cash in lieu. Information about leave used is included in your employment certificate (świadectwo pracy).

Within your annual entitlement you can take 4 days of leave on demand (Article 167² of the Labour Code). These are not extra days – they are deducted from your 20 or 26 days. You must request them no later than on the day the leave starts, and your employer should, as a rule, grant it.

Leave should be used in the year in which you acquire it. If it is not, it becomes outstanding leave, which your employer must grant by 30 September of the following year.

Outstanding leave does not expire on that date – the claim becomes time-barred after 3 years. Still, it is worth using your leave regularly: proper rest is the best protection against burnout.

26 days is more than five full weeks off. You get the most out of it by combining leave with public holidays and weekends:

• one day of leave on the Friday after a Thursday holiday (e.g. Corpus Christi) gives you 4 days off,
• a few days of leave between the holidays at the turn of the year can give you more than a week of rest,
• for a public holiday falling on a Saturday, your employer must give you another day off – combine it with your leave.

Read more in our articles on planning long weekends and a day off for a public holiday on Saturday.

Besides annual leave, the Polish Labour Code provides for additional time off that does not reduce your 20 or 26 days:

• special (occasional) leave – 2 days (e.g. your wedding, the birth of a child, the death of a close relative) or 1 day (e.g. your child’s wedding), paid,
• carer’s leave – 5 days a year to personally care for a family member or household member who needs support for serious medical reasons, unpaid (since 2023),
• time off due to force majeure – 2 days or 16 hours a year for urgent family matters caused by illness or an accident, with half pay (since 2023).

Details can be found in our article on special leave.

We work in a fast-paced, international trading environment – and that is exactly why we want leave to be real rest, not just an entry in the calendar.

Read more about how we look after balance in our team in our articles on work-life balance and our Beer Friday tradition.

How many vacation days do you get in Poland?

20 days a year with less than 10 years of seniority and 26 days with at least 10 years.

After how many years do you get 26 days of leave?

After 10 years of seniority. Education counts (e.g. 8 years for a university degree) and, from 2026, also periods of mandate contracts and self-employment.

Do I get 26 days straight after university?

Not immediately – a degree gives 8 years, so you get 26 days after 2 years of work. Previous contract work or self-employment may shorten this.

Does the 26-day entitlement start from the new year?

No – from the day you reach 10 years of seniority. In that year you get supplementary leave (the 6-day difference).

Do people on a mandate contract get paid leave?

No – annual leave applies only to employees on an employment contract. However, from 2026 periods of mandate contracts count towards seniority once you start a job under an employment contract.

In Poland you get 26 days of annual leave after 10 years of seniority – but thanks to counting education and, from 2026, periods of contract work and self-employment, many people reach this threshold much sooner than they expect. Check your seniority, give your employer any missing documents (such as a ZUS certificate) and plan your leave so that you really rest.