Pensions at a Glance 2025: Poland
Table of contents
This country note shows how Poland compares with other OECD countries in Pensions at a Glance 2025. This edition covers recent pension reforms and includes a focus on gender pension gaps.
The average income of people over 65 in Poland is 87% of the total population average, which is similar to the OECD average. However, it has declined by 9 percentage points (p.p.) since 2000, whereas it has increased by 5 p.p. on average across OECD countries. To improve the income of older people, the government introduced a 13th and 14th pension payment in 2019 and 2021, respectively, which are financed from general revenues. Additionally, from 2025, pensioners can choose to receive either part of the survivor pension alongside their own pension or full survivor pension only, whereas previously Poland did not allow a survivor pension to be combined with an old-age pension.
Poland’s population will age rapidly over the next 25 years. On average across OECD countries, the number of people aged 65 or more per 100 people aged 20-64 is projected to increase from 33 in 2024 to 55 in 2054 while this ratio stood at 21 in 1994. The projected increase is particularly strong in Poland, rising from 34 to 68, as well as in Greece, Italy, Korea, the Slovak Republic and Spain. This is driven by both by an increase in the number of older people and a decline in the size of the working-age population (20-64), projected to exceed 35% in the next four decades in Poland, as well as in Italy, Korea, Latvia and Lithuania, much more than the OECD average decline of 13%. These projections take into account the influx of people from Ukraine, first after Russia’s invasion in 2014 and then following Russia’s full-scale war of aggression in 2022. Yet, the number of pension contributors has plateaued at around 16 million since 2019, according to ZUS (social security agency) data.
The ageing population will lead to low future pensions in Poland due to automatic adjustment mechanisms. Like Italy, Latvia and Sweden, Poland introduced a notional defined contribution (NDC) scheme in the 1990s, a decade earlier than Norway. The previous DB scheme provided pension promises that were not financially sustainable in Poland, and the transition to NDC has strengthened the links between contributions and benefits. As in all other countries with an NDC scheme, Poland reduces newly granted pensions at a given age when life expectancy increases in order to limit financial pressure. Additionally, Latvia and Poland use the growth rate of the total wage bill, while Italy uses the GDP growth, as the notional interest rate applied to NDC accounts. These are all proxies of the growth rate of the contribution base and are used to better align expenditure with declining contribution revenues when the working-age population decreases. These mechanisms mean that to maintain the parity between pensions and wages workers will need to stay in the labour market longer and claim pensions later.
The deterioration of the income situation of older people is likely to continue in Poland. Indeed, based on current legislation, replacement rates will be very low. Female and male employees who entered labour market at 22 in 2024 and are assumed to earn the average wage throughout an uninterrupted career can expect their pensions to replace 31.8% and 40.6% of their net earnings, respectively, when they retire at the normal retirement age in Poland. These compare to averages of 62.4% and 63.2%, respectively, across OECD countries. Only Lithuania will have a lower replacement rate than Poland for women – actually 28.2% for both men and women. Given the strong link between contributions and benefits in the NDC scheme and large projected decline in the size of the working-age population, raising future pension levels can mainly be achieved by increasing effective retirement ages and/or higher pension contribution rates, which at 19.52% are just slightly above the OECD average despite faster ageing.
Pensions for the self-employed are expected to be even lower, as self-employed are only obliged to pay contributions based on the minimum contribution base, which is set at the 60% of the average wage. They can increase their contributions, and their pension entitlements, voluntarily. Consequently, self‑employed workers with a taxable income (i.e. net of social security contributions) equal to the net average wage before tax (gross wage net of employee’s contributions) can expect to receive an old-age pension equal to 60% of the pension of the average-wage dependent worker. This compares to 78% on average across OECD countries. In 2024, the government introduced the option to finance self‑employed’s pension contributions from the central government budget for one month in the year, for those who meet certain criteria and apply. This will improve the current income situation of some self‑employed workers while having no effect on their future pension prospects.
In Poland, the future replacement rate for women with full careers is lower due to their lower normal retirement age. The normal retirement age is 65 for men and 60 for women, and no changes are foreseen in the law. Women will still be able to retire without penalty at lower age than men in Poland, along with Colombia, Costa Rica, Hungary, Israel, and Türkiye, which negatively affects their pension levels. Costa Rica and Hungary will maintain their gender gaps of two and three years, respectively, while Colombia and Poland will maintain a five-year gap. Meanwhile, Austria, Lithuania and Switzerland have decided to close the gender gap in normal retirement ages by 2033, 2026 and 2028, respectively. The gap will also be reduced in Israel and Türkiye. Countries wanting to promote gender equality in the labour market and reduce the gender pension gap should eliminate earlier access to pensions for women.
Difference between the average pension of men and women relative to the average pension of men
Source: Figure 2.1.
Gender gap in future gross theoretical pensions for those entering the labour market in 2024 and having a full career
Source: Figure 2.19.
In Poland, a 5-year difference in retirement age reduces the pensions of women who have worked for their entire career by 25%, compared to men, when earning the average wage. However, in Colombia that has the same 5-year difference in the retirement age between men and women, this reduction is only 6%. This is because in Poland's NDC scheme, pensions are automatically adjusted according to the age at which they are claimed, whereas in Colombia this is not the case and in addition the 80% cap to the replacement rate means that additional years of work do not accrue additional pension entitlements.
Employment among women in Poland is low and they claim pensions much earlier than men. Among people aged 60-64, the employment rate in Poland is much lower for women at 25% than for men at 62%, and this gender gap is among the highest across OECD countries. The average age at which pensioners first received old-age pensions was 60.6 years for women and 65.1 years for men in 2024, according to ZUS data, showing that many people start claiming pensions at the earliest possible age, which is also the case in other countries. Compared to 2010, this age increased by only 1.6 years for women and by substantial 4.9 years for men as early retirement was substantially tightened for people born after 1948, which affected more men than women. This increase in the gender gap in the effective age of claiming pensions raises the risk of higher gender pension gaps. Employment opportunities are also reduced by the requirement to terminate an employment contract to access the pension benefits after the normal retirement age. This affects women more than men due to their lower normal retirement age. Mandatory termination of the employment contract means that older workers are likely to be offered poorer working conditions when combining work and pensions than before claiming a pension.
The gender pension gap is low and has declined during the implementation of the NDC scheme. At 15%, Poland’s figure was substantially lower than the OECD average of 23% in 2024. The transition to NDC has contributed to the decline of the GPG from 21% in 2007 for two main reasons. First, the NDC has eliminated higher accrual rates for most male-dominated occupations. Second, it has effectively expanded the period for which wages enter pension calculation from the last 10 years to full career: workers with strong career progression, often higher-earning men, are the main beneficiaries of short reference periods for pensionable earnings. Yet, gender differences in lifetime earnings are typically the main driver of the gender pension gap as a large part of pension benefits are earnings-related. Gender gaps in hours worked and in hourly wages in Poland remain below the OECD average. Similar to Latin America countries, Czechia, Greece, Italy and Türkiye, Poland’s high gender gap in expected career duration is the main factor driving gender differences in lifetime earnings. The expected career duration of women in Poland stands at 32.5 years for women, which is almost two years less than the OECD average and almost six years less than for men in Poland.
Low old-age income inequality despite low old-age safety nets
Fast population ageing and low employment among people aged 60-64
Contribution rate close to OECD average despite fast ageing pressure on pension levels
Very low future replacement rates even for low earners
Contact
Maciej LIS (✉ maciej.lis@oecd.org)
Hervé BOULHOL (✉ herve.boulhol@oecd.org)
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The full book is available in English: OECD (2025), Pensions at a Glance 2025: OECD and G20 Indicators, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/e40274c1-en.
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