A CFO at a mid-sized product company receives a request from the CTO: three senior backend developers for a new module. The spreadsheet budget looks simple — three times PLN 22,000 gross, times twelve months, PLN 792,000. A year later the team has cost more than PLN 1.1 million, one of the seniors left after eight months, and the module shipped a quarter late because two positions stayed open for almost three months.
The gap is not an accounting error. It exists because gross salary is not the employer’s cost — it is the most visible part of it, but not the only one. On top of it come social security contributions, pension plan payments, equipment, office space, recruitment and, above all, time the company pays for that is not work: holidays, sick leave, training and notice periods.
Below, we calculate everything on a single example — a senior backend developer in Warsaw in 2026 — under three models: an employment contract, a direct B2B contract and body leasing. The contribution rates come from Polish regulations in force in 2026, and all cost assumptions are stated openly so you can plug in your own numbers. Amounts are in Polish złoty; where helpful, we add an indicative euro value at 4.30 PLN per EUR.
What does a developer on an employment contract really cost an employer in Poland in 2026?
The starting point is gross salary, because contributions are calculated on it. Assume a senior backend developer earning PLN 22,000 gross per month (about EUR 5,100) — a typical figure for experienced Java, .NET or Python engineers in large Polish cities. On top of that amount, the employer pays its own social insurance and fund contributions, which in 2026 total 20.48% of gross salary.
If the employee participates in PPK, the Polish employee capital plan — and employees are enrolled automatically unless they opt out — the employer adds a basic contribution of 1.5%. The total uplift then rises to 21.98%.
For a PLN 22,000 gross salary, the monthly payroll cost looks like this:
| Component | Rate | Monthly amount |
|---|---|---|
| Gross salary | — | PLN 22,000.00 |
| Pension contribution (employer share) | 9.76% | PLN 2,147.20 |
| Disability contribution (employer share) | 6.50% | PLN 1,430.00 |
| Accident insurance | 1.67% | PLN 367.40 |
| Labour Fund | 2.45% | PLN 539.00 |
| Guaranteed Employee Benefits Fund | 0.10% | PLN 22.00 |
| PPK basic employer contribution | 1.50% | PLN 330.00 |
| Payroll cost | 21.98% | PLN 26,835.60 |
Annually that is PLN 322,027.20 (about EUR 74,900) — PLN 58,027.20 more than the sum of gross salaries. And this is still a cost “on paper”. It does not include equipment, office space or recruitment, nor the fact that out of 2,008 working hours in 2026 the employee will actually work far fewer.
It is also worth knowing the lower end of the scale. At the statutory minimum wage, which has been PLN 4,806 gross since 1 January 2026, the employer cost is PLN 5,790.27, or PLN 5,862.36 with the PPK contribution. For IT roles this matters mainly for interns and juniors, but it shows that the roughly 21–22% uplift applies across the whole pay scale — until the 30x cap kicks in.
Which contributions does an employer pay in Poland in 2026, and how does the 30x cap work?
Contribution rates did not change in 2026 compared with previous years. What changed are the thresholds, and one of them has a real effect on the cost of employing the best-paid IT specialists.
The 30x cap is the annual ceiling on the base for pension and disability contributions. In 2026 it is PLN 282,600 — thirty times the forecast average monthly wage (PLN 9,420), announced by the Minister of Family, Labour and Social Policy. In 2025 the cap was PLN 260,190. Once an employee’s earnings since the start of the year exceed it, the employer stops paying its share of pension and disability contributions — 16.26% of salary in total.
For a senior earning PLN 22,000 gross the cap is irrelevant: annual pay (PLN 264,000) stays below it. It is different for an architect or tech lead earning PLN 30,000 gross per month. Annual pay of PLN 360,000 crosses the cap during October, and from that point the employer’s cost drops. The annual saving on employer contributions is PLN 12,585.24.
The remaining components have rules worth knowing when budgeting:
- Accident insurance at 1.67% is the rate for payers reporting no more than nine insured persons. Companies with ten or more have an individually set rate between 0.67% and 3.33%.
- Labour Fund and Guaranteed Employee Benefits Fund contributions are not paid, among others, for employees aged 55+ (women) or 60+ (men), and for a set period after a return from maternity or parental leave.
- Health insurance (9%) is not an employer cost. The employer calculates and remits it, but it is funded by the employee from their own salary.
- The PPK employer contribution is not subject to social security contributions, but it is taxable income for the employee.
These details rarely move the picture by more than one or two percentage points. Much larger differences arise outside the payroll.
Which employment costs never appear on the payroll?
Salary calculators stop at contributions. For a CFO that is only half the calculation, because employing a developer creates fixed costs per seat that do not depend on salary. In our example we use the following explicit monthly assumptions:
- Equipment and licences — a developer-grade laptop depreciated over three years, monitors, IDE licences, access to cloud tooling: PLN 500.
- Benefits — private healthcare and a sports card, standard in offers for senior engineers: PLN 350.
- Office — a share of space costs in a hybrid model, including utilities and facility services: PLN 900.
- Administration — payroll and HR services, health and safety, mandatory medical checks: PLN 150.
Together that is PLN 1,900 per month, or PLN 22,800 per year. Your numbers may be higher or lower — a fully remote company does not pay for an office but often contributes to home-office costs; a company with its own space in central Warsaw will pay more.
The most frequently overlooked cost, however, is recruitment. Recruitment agencies in Poland usually charge 15–25% of annual gross salary for a successful placement; in-house recruitment costs about the same, spread across the HR team’s time, hiring managers conducting interviews and job advertising. At 20% and PLN 22,000 per month, that is PLN 52,800 one-off. If you expect the senior to stay two years — an optimistic assumption given IT turnover — you amortise PLN 26,400 per year.
We break down recruitment costs in detail, including the cost of a failed hire, in our article on the IT recruitment cost calculator. Here we assume the base case: the hire succeeds at the first attempt.
With these items included, the annual cost of a senior on an employment contract is PLN 371,227.20 (about EUR 86,300). That is PLN 107,227.20 more than the sum of gross salaries — an uplift of more than 40%.
Why calculate cost per productive hour rather than cost per head?
Annual cost tells you how much you will spend. It does not tell you how much work you buy with it. To compare employment with B2B and body leasing, all models need a common unit: the cost of a productive hour — an hour in which the specialist actually works on your product.
In 2026 Poland has 251 working days, or 2,008 full-time working hours. An employee on an employment contract will not work all of them:
- Annual leave — 26 days for employees with at least ten years of service, which includes up to eight years for a university degree. A senior with a degree is almost always entitled to 26 days.
- Sick leave — we assume 8 days per year. For the first 33 days of illness in a year, the employer pays sick pay (80% of the base) from its own funds.
- Training, company meetings and internal events unrelated to the project — we assume 5 days.
After deducting 39 days, 1,696 productive hours remain. Dividing the annual cost of PLN 371,227.20 by this number gives PLN 218.88 per productive hour (about EUR 50.90). This is the figure to compare with any hourly rate in a B2B or body leasing offer — only then is the comparison fair.
Note that this calculation leaves out onboarding. A new senior works at reduced efficiency in the first weeks while learning the domain, architecture and processes. In the first year of employment, the real cost of a fully productive hour is therefore even higher. In later years the uplift falls, because recruitment is amortised — provided the employee stays.
What does the same specialist cost on a B2B contract?
On a B2B contract, the developer runs a sole proprietorship and invoices for services rendered. The company pays no social security contributions, pension plan payments or sick pay for them — those are the contractor’s own costs. In return the rate is higher than “take-home pay” on employment, because the contractor has to cover their own insurance, holidays and downtime from it.
Assume a rate of PLN 170 net per hour (about EUR 39.50), typical for a senior backend developer on a direct contract. The contractor invoices hours worked: 1,696 productive hours plus 40 hours of training the company asked them to attend. That is 1,736 hours and PLN 295,120 per year.
Seat costs that remain with the company come on top: tool and licence access (PLN 300 per month — contractors usually bring their own laptop), office (PLN 900) and contract and invoice administration (PLN 100). Together PLN 15,600 per year. Recruitment costs the same as for employment — PLN 26,400 per year amortised over two years.
The total is PLN 337,120, and the cost per productive hour is PLN 198.77. That is about 9% less than employment. This difference is the main reason B2B has become the dominant form of engagement with senior engineers in the Polish IT market.
Two caveats change this calculation, though. First, many IT B2B contracts include a clause on paid days off — usually 20 to 26 days a year. With 20 paid days, the company pays for 160 hours without work, and the cost per productive hour rises by about 8% — to PLN 214.81, almost the level of employment. Second, since July 2026 the legal environment for B2B contracts in Poland has changed.
How does the July 2026 labour inspectorate reform change the maths for B2B contracts?
An amendment to the Act on the National Labour Inspectorate (PIP), signed by the President on 2 April 2026, came into force after a three-month vacatio legis — the key provisions apply from 8 July 2026. The most important change: a district labour inspector can now convert a civil-law contract, including a B2B contract, into an employment contract by administrative decision. Previously this required proceedings before a labour court.
The procedure has three stages: an inspection and findings of fact, an instruction to conclude an employment contract and, only if the instruction is not followed, a decision. The company therefore gets a chance to correct the situation voluntarily. The decision can be appealed to a labour court within one month, and for the duration of the proceedings the court automatically restricts the ability to amend or terminate the civil-law contract. The new rules also cover contracts concluded before 8 July 2026.
A PIP decision takes effect from the day it is issued. That does not close other routes: the Social Insurance Institution (ZUS) and tax authorities can independently examine whether past cooperation met the conditions of an employment relationship, which means a risk of back contributions.
The test remains the one set out in Article 22 of the Polish Labour Code: if the contractor works under direction, at a place and time set by the company, without business risk or autonomy, then regardless of the contract’s name it is an employment relationship. A model in which a B2B contractor has a line manager, a fixed schedule, mandatory attendance at daily meetings and holidays “subject to approval” is now a risk worth pricing.
The warning signs that most often appear in inspections are: a fixed monthly “salary” on the invoice regardless of the scope of work, the contractor placed in the organisational chart as a subordinate of a specific manager, a requirement to work in the office at set hours, exclusivity without a business rationale, and a contract with no defined scope of services. None of them decides the matter on its own, but together they look very much like employment.
For a CFO, this means the cost of B2B needs a risk adjustment. It cannot be priced precisely, but it can be reduced: by billing for outcomes or a defined scope of work, genuine contractor autonomy in organising work, no managerial subordination, and regular contract reviews with a lawyer. This article is not legal advice — if your company has dozens of B2B contractors working like employees, a contract audit should be one of this year’s priorities.
Why can VAT raise the cost of B2B and body leasing by 23% in financial services?
Most cost comparisons ignore VAT, because for a VAT-registered business it is neutral: the contractor’s invoice includes 23% VAT, which the company deducts from its output VAT. That does not apply to everyone.
Banks, insurers, investment funds and some healthcare providers deliver services that are exempt from VAT under Article 43 of the Polish VAT Act. Such entities cannot deduct input VAT — or can deduct it only in proportion to their taxable sales. For them, VAT on a B2B contractor’s or body leasing provider’s invoice is a real cost.
In our example, fully non-deductible VAT on the contractor’s invoices (PLN 295,120) adds PLN 67,877.60 per year. The cost per productive hour on B2B then rises from PLN 198.77 to PLN 238.80 — higher than employment (PLN 218.88), on which no VAT is charged.
This is one reason banks and insurers build IT teams on employment contracts, or through dedicated technology subsidiaries, more often than other industries. If you work in financial services, always compare models in gross amounts — including the VAT you cannot recover. We cover the specifics of the sector in our note on body leasing in fintech.
What does a specialist cost under body leasing, and what does the rate include?
In body leasing (staff augmentation), the company neither employs the specialist nor signs a contract with them. It contracts a provider, which recruits the specialist, is responsible for the form of cooperation with them and invoices the client for hours worked. The specialist works in the client’s team, on the client’s project and in the client’s tools.
A body leasing rate is higher than a direct B2B rate, because it covers more than the specialist’s pay. In our published body leasing rate benchmark for 2026, a senior backend developer costs PLN 180–260 per hour. In the example we assume PLN 210 (about EUR 48.80) — the middle of the range.
What the rate includes:
- The specialist’s pay — the largest component.
- Recruitment — the provider covers the cost of finding and vetting the candidate. The client pays no one-off fee.
- Turnover risk — if the specialist leaves or does not work out, the provider supplies a replacement under the contract.
- Administration — the contract with the specialist, invoicing, compliance of the engagement.
- The provider’s margin.
What you do not pay for: holidays, sick leave, recruitment lead time or downtime between projects. Only hours worked are invoiced.
Body leasing rates vary between providers, so before signing it is worth checking four things:
- What exactly the replacement guarantee covers — how quickly the provider presents a new candidate and whether the replacement’s onboarding time is billed.
- The notice period — 30 days is the market standard; longer periods reduce the flexibility you are paying for in the rate.
- How the provider contracts its specialists — whether the form of cooperation complies with Polish law, especially after the labour inspectorate reform.
- Whether the rate is fixed for the contract term — and on what terms it can be indexed.
At 1,736 invoiced hours (the same as B2B), the annual invoice is PLN 364,560. Seat costs on the client side — tools, office, vendor management — are PLN 15,600. Total: PLN 380,160; cost per productive hour: PLN 224.15.
How do the three models compare over a 12-month engagement?
Here are the results for a stable role, with the specialist working the whole year and recruitment amortised over two years:
| Item (one year, senior backend) | Employment | Direct B2B | Body leasing |
|---|---|---|---|
| Salary / invoices | PLN 264,000 | PLN 295,120 | PLN 364,560 |
| Employer contributions and PPK | PLN 58,027 | — | — |
| Seat costs | PLN 22,800 | PLN 15,600 | PLN 15,600 |
| Recruitment (24-month amortisation) | PLN 26,400 | PLN 26,400 | in the rate |
| Annual cost | PLN 371,227 | PLN 337,120 | PLN 380,160 |
| Productive hours | 1,696 | 1,696 | 1,696 |
| Cost per productive hour | PLN 218.88 | PLN 198.77 | PLN 224.15 |
| Time to start | 2–4 months | 1–3 months | 1–4 weeks |
| Turnover risk | company | company | provider |
| Notice period | up to 3 months | per contract | per contract (usually 30 days) |
For a stable, year-round role, body leasing is the most expensive per hour — 2.4% more than employment and 12.8% more than direct B2B. There is no point hiding that: if you know you need a specific person for three years and the market lets you find them in reasonable time, direct hiring will cost less.
The table shows two things that the hourly cost does not, however. The first is time to start: in our recruitment cost analysis, filling a senior position in Poland takes about 89 days on average, and a candidate hired on employment usually still has a notice period at their current employer — up to three months. The second is who carries the risk when something goes wrong. These two factors decide the outcome when the need is not stable and multi-year.
What changes when the project lasts 9 months instead of two years?
Most demand for IT specialists is not multi-year. A new module, a cloud migration, a regulatory project, cover for someone on parental leave — these are assignments of several months to just over a year. Let us run the same example for a project lasting 9 months.
On employment, recruitment no longer spreads over two years — its full cost (PLN 52,800) falls on a single project. When the project ends, the company either finds the employee other work or terminates the contract. With service between six months and three years, the notice period is one month — another month of full cost, usually without productive project work. Total: PLN 340,156 for 1,272 productive hours, or PLN 267.42 per hour.
On direct B2B, you also pay the full recruitment cost, but the contract can end on the notice terms of the agreement. Result: PLN 285,840, or PLN 224.72 per hour.
With body leasing, the hourly cost does not change, because there are no one-off entry or exit costs: PLN 224.15 per hour, PLN 285,120 in total.
| 9-month project | Employment | Direct B2B | Body leasing |
|---|---|---|---|
| Total cost | PLN 340,156 | PLN 285,840 | PLN 285,120 |
| Cost per productive hour | PLN 267.42 | PLN 224.72 | PLN 224.15 |
| Difference vs body leasing | +19.3% | +0.3% | — |
In a 9-month project, body leasing is 16% cheaper than employment and practically equal to direct B2B. And that assumes the employment and B2B hires succeeded and the specialist started on day one of the project. In practice, the start will slip by two or three months — a third of a 9-month schedule.
That time has a price too, even though it never appears on an invoice. Suppose the module the senior will build is expected to cut the company’s operating costs by PLN 60,000 per month once live — for example by automating a manual process. If hiring on employment delays the start by two and a half months compared with body leasing, the company loses PLN 150,000 in savings it will never recover. That is more than the entire annual cost difference between the cheapest and the most expensive model (PLN 43,040 between B2B and body leasing). For revenue-generating projects — a new product feature, a new sales channel — the maths is often even more clear-cut.
So in choosing an engagement model, the hourly cost is necessary but not sufficient. The second pillar is the cost of a month of delay, which only the business knows — not the HR department.
Where is the break-even point between body leasing and direct B2B?
The 9-month comparison is not a coincidence. It is possible to calculate precisely after how many months a direct B2B contract starts to beat body leasing.
The rate difference in our example is PLN 40 per hour (PLN 210 vs PLN 170). At 1,736 invoiced hours a year, body leasing therefore costs PLN 69,440 more per year, or about PLN 5,787 per month. On the other side, direct B2B requires a one-off recruitment costing PLN 52,800. Dividing one by the other gives a break-even point of about 9.1 months.
The conclusion is straightforward:
- Engagements shorter than about 9 months — body leasing is cheaper than direct B2B, even before counting recruitment time.
- Engagements longer than about 9 months with zero turnover — direct B2B is cheaper, and the advantage grows every month.
- Every unplanned departure resets the clock — if a B2B contractor leaves after a year and you have to recruit again, you pay another PLN 52,800 and more months of vacancy.
Your numbers will differ. If the rate gap is PLN 30 and recruitment costs 25% of pay, the break-even moves further out. If the market for a given technology is thin and hiring takes six months, body leasing wins even in longer projects. That is why, instead of a ready answer, it is worth building your own model — as shown below. For a broader qualitative comparison of the two models, see our article on B2B contracts versus body leasing in 2026.
How do you build your own employer cost calculator, step by step?
An employer cost calculator that genuinely supports a decision does not stop at social security contributions. The scheme below can be rebuilt in a spreadsheet in an hour, and its output — the cost per productive hour — lets you compare any models and any offers.
Step 1. Base cost. For employment: gross salary × 12 × (1 + 20.48% + PPK contribution). Remember the 30x cap (PLN 282,600 in 2026) — above that annual salary, subtract 16.26% of the excess. For B2B and body leasing: hourly rate × invoiced hours.
Step 2. Paid time off. On employment, annual leave is paid by law. On B2B, check whether the contract provides paid days off — if so, add them to invoiced hours. In body leasing you pay only for hours worked.
Step 3. Seat costs. Equipment, licences, office, benefits, administration. Use your own controlling data, not the values from our example.
Step 4. Recruitment. Divide the one-off cost by the realistic — not the hoped-for — length of employment. Check your HR data for how long people in the role actually stay.
Step 5. VAT. If your company cannot fully deduct VAT, add the non-deductible share to B2B and body leasing invoices.
Step 6. Productive hours. 2,008 hours in 2026 minus leave, the average sick absence from your own data, training and internal events.
Step 7. Cost per productive hour. The sum of steps 1–5 divided by the result of step 6.
Step 8. Cost of delay. Estimate what a month with the role unfilled costs — lost revenue, delayed rollout, overtime for the rest of the team — and multiply it by the difference in time to start between models. This is the item that most often decides the outcome, and one no standard calculator shows.
Step 9. Risk. For B2B, weight the risk of contract reclassification. For employment, the cost of the notice period when the project ends. For body leasing, check the replacement guarantee and the notice period in the provider contract.
Which model should you choose, and what should a CFO take away?
None of the three models is always the cheapest. Each wins in a different scenario, and choosing a model on hourly rate or gross salary alone is a mistake. The matrix below summarises when each model has the cost and risk advantage:
| Scenario | Employment | Direct B2B | Body leasing |
|---|---|---|---|
| Key, multi-year role, low turnover | ✅ Best choice | ✅ Good, if the contractor is genuinely autonomous | ⚠️ 2–13% more per hour |
| Project of 3–12 months | ❌ Recruitment and notice weigh on a short period | ⚠️ Pays off beyond about 9 months | ✅ Lowest cost and fastest start |
| Urgent need (start within a month) | ❌ 2–4 months to start | ⚠️ 1–3 months to start | ✅ 1–4 weeks to start |
| Niche technology, thin market | ⚠️ Long and costly hiring | ⚠️ Long hiring | ✅ Access to the provider’s network |
| VAT-exempt company (bank, insurer) | ✅ No VAT | ❌ +23% non-deductible VAT | ⚠️ +23% VAT, advantage only in short projects |
| Team working like employees (schedule, reporting lines) | ✅ Compliant | ❌ Risk of a PIP decision since 8 July 2026 | ✅ The provider shapes the relationship with the specialist |
| Wish to test a person before hiring | ⚠️ Probation up to 3 months | ⚠️ Possible | ✅ Try & Hire model |
The key takeaways from our calculations:
- The uplift on gross salary under employment exceeds 40% once you add contributions (21.98% with PPK), seat costs and amortised recruitment. Budgeting a team on salaries alone understates the real cost by almost 30%.
- Compare the cost per productive hour, not per head or per rate. In 2026, of 2,008 full-time working hours, about 1,700 are actually worked.
- Direct B2B is the cheapest for stable roles, but since 8 July 2026 it carries higher legal risk, and for VAT-exempt companies it loses its cost advantage.
- Body leasing wins when the need is time-limited, urgent or involves niche skills. In our example, the break-even against direct B2B is about 9 months of cooperation.
- The biggest hidden item is time: months of recruitment and the candidate’s notice period. No salary calculator shows it, and in a short project it is often a third of the schedule.
At ARDURA Consulting we have been building IT teams for clients in Poland, Europe, the Middle East and the USA for more than ten years — through staff augmentation as well as Try & Hire, where the specialist can join your company as an employee after a period of cooperation. Before we propose a rate, we run exactly this calculation with the client: what a productive hour costs you today, how long you really need the specialist, and what every month without them costs. Sometimes the answer is that you should hire directly — and then we say so.
If you want to see this model on your own company’s numbers, talk to our team — we will prepare a cost comparison of employment, B2B and body leasing for the roles you are looking for. Current rate ranges are also available on our pricing page.