Sick leave L4 in Poland: how much you get and 2026 rules

Sick leave (L4, zwolnienie lekarskie – a doctor’s sick note) in Poland is usually paid at 80% of your average pay. Your employer pays for the first 33 days of illness in a calendar year, and after that you get benefit from ZUS (social security). Since 13 April 2026 there have been more precise rules on what you may and may not do while on sick leave, and both ZUS and your employer can check this.

How to get a sick note and whether you need to take it anywhere

The doctor issues an electronic sick note (e-ZLA). Usually your PESEL number is all they need (how to get one is explained in our article about PESEL in Poland).

The sick note goes to ZUS automatically, and your employer sees it in their payer account, so you don’t need to bring a paper copy. You can see all your sick notes in the Internetowe Konto Pacjenta (online patient account).

What you need to do yourself:

• if you will be ill somewhere other than your home address, give the doctor the address where you will be staying;
• if you move to another address during your sick leave, tell your employer and ZUS within 3 days;
• tell your employer or coordinator straight away that you are ill and roughly for how many days.

How much sick pay you get

Since 2022 the benefit for time in hospital has also been 80%, not 70% as before. Your employer may pay more than 80% for the first days of illness if its pay rules provide for that.

It is calculated from your average pay over the 12 calendar months before the month in which you fell ill. For an employee, the pay counted is what remains after deducting the ZUS contributions the employee pays themselves (13.71%). One day is 1/30 of this base. The benefit is paid for every day of illness, weekends included.

Example. You earned the 2026 minimum wage – PLN 4,806 gross – all year. Your employee contributions are PLN 658.91, so the base is PLN 4,147.09. One day of illness: 4,147.09 ÷ 30 ≈ PLN 138.24, and 80% of that is about PLN 110.59. Ten days of sick leave come to about PLN 1,105.90 before tax, so your take-home amount will be lower.

Who pays: your employer or ZUS

• For the first 33 days of illness in a calendar year your employer pays: this is wynagrodzenie chorobowe (sick pay from the employer).
• For workers over 50 the employer pays for 14 days, starting from the calendar year after the year in which you turned 50.
• After that you get zasiłek chorobowy (sickness benefit from ZUS). It is paid by ZUS, or by your employer itself if it registers more than 20 people for sickness insurance.
• The maximum benefit period is 182 days; 270 days if the cause is tuberculosis or the illness falls during pregnancy.

If you work through a temporary work agency, the agency is your employer, so it pays the sick pay for the first days. We have put together the other rights of agency workers in our article on working through an agency.

When you are not yet entitled to money: the waiting period

Benefit from ZUS is not due from the first day of insurance, but after a waiting period (okres wyczekiwania):

• 30 days of continuous sickness insurance if it is compulsory (employment contract);
• 90 days if the insurance is voluntary (including umowa zlecenie).

No waiting period applies, for example, after an accident on the way to or from work, to school and university graduates who join insurance within 90 days of finishing their studies, and to compulsorily insured people with at least 10 years of compulsory sickness insurance.

Sick leave on an umowa zlecenie

On an umowa zlecenie (civil-law contract of mandate) sickness insurance (ubezpieczenie chorobowe) is voluntary. If you have opted in, a 2.45% contribution is deducted from your pay, and after 90 days of continuous insurance you are entitled to benefit from ZUS. The Labour Code rules on 33 days of sick pay from the employer do not apply to a zlecenie. Without voluntary insurance a sick note only confirms that you are ill, but you will not get any money for it.

What you may and may not do on L4 from 13 April 2026

The new rules were introduced by the ustawa z dnia 18 grudnia 2025 r. o zmianie ustawy o systemie ubezpieczeń społecznych oraz niektórych innych ustaw (Dz.U. 2026 poz. 26). It amended art. 17 of the act on ZUS sickness and maternity benefits (ustawa o świadczeniach pieniężnych z ubezpieczenia społecznego w razie choroby i macierzyństwa). You lose the benefit for the whole period of sick leave if you:

1. do paid work (praca zarobkowa) – any activity that earns money, whatever the legal basis, be it an employment contract, a zlecenie or your own business;
2. do something at odds with the purpose of sick leave – any activity that makes treatment or recovery harder or longer.

The exception for both points is occasional tasks (czynności incydentalne) that important circumstances (istotne okoliczności) require during sick leave. For the second point, normal everyday activities are also an exception. An instruction from your employer does not count as an important circumstance.

You may: go to the doctor, the pharmacy, for tests or for rehabilitation; buy food, especially if you live alone; sign an urgent document when you have to because nobody else is authorised to; attend the funeral of someone close to you.

You may not: work another job or “earn a bit on the side”, do tasks for your employer, or go on trips. The doctor’s note “chory może chodzić” (the patient may walk) allows normal activity, not work or trips.

If work is discovered during the first 33 days, you also lose the sick pay from your employer for the whole period. Those days still count towards the 182-day limit.

Working for another employer: what changes from 1 January 2027

At the moment, if you are insured on two grounds (for example, an employment contract with one company and a zlecenie with another), your illness covers both, and the doctor issues a sick note for each. You may not work at the second job while on L4.

From 1 January 2027 the doctor will be able, at your request, not to issue a sick note for the job you can still do despite being ill, given the nature of the work. The Ministry of Family, Labour and Social Policy gives the example of a journalist with a hoarse voice: he cannot present a radio show, but he can write an article. In that case you must tell that payer about the period of sick leave from your other job.

How ZUS and your employer check sick leave

Both ZUS and your employer can check whether you are using your sick leave properly. ZUS checks, among others, the workers of companies that register up to 20 people for sickness insurance. Your employer can check you when it pays you sick pay or benefit itself. Since 27 January 2026 ZUS can also ask the insured person for explanations during a check.

What it looks like, according to the ZUS guide:

• checks are unannounced: at the address on your sick note, at your workplace or somewhere else;
• the inspector shows written authorisation, may confirm your identity and enter the place being checked, but may not ask about your health;
• if you are not at home, you will be asked to explain your absence; a visit to the doctor or tests are a valid reason, and refusing to explain counts as improper use of sick leave;
• a report is drawn up in two copies, and you have 7 days to add your comments.

Don’t work while on sick leave, not even “for an hour”, and don’t leave your address without telling your employer and ZUS. The risk is losing the money for the whole sick leave.

What to do if you fall ill

1. See a doctor and give your PESEL and the address where you will be while ill.
2. Tell your employer or coordinator straight away.
3. Check your sick note in the Internetowe Konto Pacjenta.
4. Stay at the address you gave; report any change within 3 days.
5. On an umowa zlecenie, check whether you pay the voluntary chorobowe contribution.

The general rules on sickness benefit are described on the ministry’s website.

How STARKO helps

We employ people under a legal contract under Polish law, with insurance. Our coordinator speaks Ukrainian and Russian and is available every day, so if you fall ill, let them know – they will explain what to do next. Looking for legal work in Poland? Send us a request, and we will tell you about our vacancies.