According to the Salary Report 2025, published by the human resources advisory agency Hays Poland, the coming months will bring salary increases. A significant 79% of companies are planning to increase salaries.
However, the planned salary increases will be smaller than in previous years. Only one in ten organizations predict that the increases will reach or exceed a level of 10%. This is 8 percentage points lower than a year ago.
Companies are aware that salaries will not remain stagnant and will need to adjust their salary grids to some extent to match market trends. However, the increases are most likely to have either a general, inflation-based nature, or will be granted on a point-by-point basis, where they are absolutely necessary.
Market pressure, uncertainty, and budget constraints, which have been driving the way companies operate for some time now, are also influencing salary strategies. As the study described in the Hays Poland Salary Report shows, almost 4/5 of organisations have planned increases for 2025. The vast majority of these increases will not be more than 10%. The percentage of employers predicting larger increases is dwindling year by year.
Respondents in the Hays study, when asked about their company’s current strategic goals, most frequently mention increased financial performance (62%) and increased profit (47%). They identify the increasing costs of doing business, including the cost of labor (35%) and budget constraints (20%) as the biggest obstacles to achieving these goals. This illustrates the environment in which many organisations currently operate, marked by high cost pressure, general economic and geopolitical uncertainty, and the need for heightened efforts to remain competitive.
Many companies still function under expenditure discipline and must continually seek optimization. In other words, this is not a situation conducive to creating ambitious raise plans. However, 79% of companies are planning raises, which is just 3 percentage points less than a year ago. However, these will not be as high or as widespread as in past years. In some organisations, they will mainly be directed towards the lowest earners, partly due to the increase in the minimum wage, and in others towards experts with the most valuable skills.
“Employers are aware that they are not operating in a vacuum and a complete absence of raises is not possible. Hence, they have included factors such as the increase in the minimum wage, inflation, and raises for key employees in their remuneration strategy for 2025. However, it is clear that the expected increases are modest, granted only when necessary, and every decision to raise wages is preceded by a thorough analysis,” observes Aleksandra Tyszkiewicz, Executive Director for the Central and Eastern Europe region at Hays.
According to the annual study described in the Hays Poland Salary Report, companies’ plans for raises are becoming more modest each year. While as recently as in 2023, 31% planned raises exceeding 10%, in 2025 this percentage was only 11%.
A picture of respondent business perspectives on planned changes in employee salaries in 2021, 2022 and 2023 is as follows:
– Increase by more than 20%: 3% in 2021, 1% in 2022 and 1% in 2023.
– Increase by 10-20%: 28% in 2021, 18% in 2022 and 10% in 2023.
– Increase by less than 10%: 50% in 2021, 63% in 2022 and 68% in 2023
– No change: 16% in 2021, 17% in 2022 and 20% in 2023.
– Reduction: 3% in 2021, 1% in 2022 and 1% in 2023.
“Business strategies for the upcoming period or financial year are based on the situation and data available at the time of their creation. The last two years have been challenging for many companies, and forecasts for the economy’s health remain uncertain, which has undoubtedly affected rather modest pay rise plans for this year. However, this does not mean that they will not be adjusted to the current conditions when the job market rebounds. In the past, we have seen situations where the final scale of pay rises exceeded the plans declared by companies twelve months earlier,” comments Aleksandra Tyszkiewicz.
In 2024, 56% of specialists and managers covered by the Hays study received a pay rise, which is 11 percentage points less than the year before. This translates into a drop in satisfaction with pay conditions. This year, as many as 59% of specialists express dissatisfaction with their current pay, and a further 48% believe that their pay is inadequate for their duties.
The employee perspective on satisfaction with current pay in 2024 and 2025 is as follows:
– Definitely yes: 6% in 2024 and 4% in 2025.
– Yes: 43% in 2024 and 37% in 2025.
– No: 42% in 2024 and 48% in 2025.
– Definitely not: 9% in 2024 and 11% in 2025.
“As a result of prolonged uncertainty, many employees do not know how their pay prospects will shape up this year. While most professionals speak positively about their job market prospects in 2025, as many as 46% are unsure whether their pay will change. Many of them will therefore be closely monitoring the situation in their company and on the job market to avoid missing the moment conducive to pay negotiations,” concludes Aleksandra Tyszkiewicz from Hays.
Source: https://ceo.com.pl/raport-hays-2025-podwyzki-w-firmach-ale-mniej-hojnie-niz-w-poprzednich-latach-30183
