Working hours in Poland 2026 and 2027: hours per month
Poland works 8 hours a day and 40 a week on average. Hours for every month of 2026 and 2027, and why a Saturday holiday cuts hours, not days.
By Dawid Siedlarz · , updated
"How many working days are there in November" and "what is the working time norm for November" sound like one question. They are not. The difference shows up exactly when a public holiday falls on a Saturday, which in some years happens more than once.
All dates for 2027 in one table: Poland calendar 2027.
Working hours in Poland at a glance
A full-time employee in Poland works at most 8 hours a day and on average 40 hours a week, averaged over a settlement period of up to four months (Labour Code art. 129 § 1). Overtime for the employer's particular needs is capped at 150 hours per calendar year (art. 151 § 3). Both 2026 and 2027 have 253 working days and a norm of 2,008 hours.
| Month | 2026 days | 2026 hours | 2027 days | 2027 hours |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 20 | 160 | 19 | 152 |
| February | 20 | 160 | 20 | 160 |
| March | 22 | 176 | 22 | 176 |
| April | 21 | 168 | 22 | 176 |
| May | 20 | 160 | 19 | 144 |
| June | 21 | 168 | 22 | 176 |
| July | 23 | 184 | 22 | 176 |
| August | 21 | 160 | 22 | 176 |
| September | 22 | 176 | 22 | 176 |
| October | 22 | 176 | 21 | 168 |
| November | 20 | 160 | 20 | 160 |
| December | 21 | 160 | 22 | 168 |
| Year | 253 | 2,008 | 253 | 2,008 |
Hours equal working days times eight except in months with a holiday on a Saturday: August 2026 (15 August), December 2026 (26 December), May 2027 (1 May) and December 2027 (25 December). The next section explains why.
Source: Labour Code, consolidated text Dz.U. 2026 poz. 1245; the figures come from the working days calculator.
Two definitions
Working days are Monday to Friday, minus the public holidays that land on them. Saturdays do not come into it, since they are not working days in the basic schedule anyway.
The working time norm follows art. 130 of the Labour Code: multiply 40 hours by the number of full weeks in the settlement period and add 8 hours for each remaining day from Monday to Friday. Then - and this is the whole point - every holiday that falls on a day other than a Sunday lowers the norm by 8 hours.
A Saturday is not a Sunday. A holiday on a Saturday therefore lowers the norm without removing a working day, and the employer has to give another day off for it; otherwise the employee would work more hours in the period than the norm allows.
May 2027 as an example
May 2027 has 21 days from Monday to Friday. The holidays: 1 May is a Saturday, 3 May a Monday, and Corpus Christi on 27 May a Thursday.
- Working days: 21 minus 3 May and 27 May, so 19.
- The norm: 8 x 21 = 168 hours, minus 8 hours for each of the three holidays, since none is on a Sunday, so 144 hours.
Counting the norm as working days times eight would give 152 hours. That gap is precisely the day off the employer owes for 1 May.
Across 2027 the totals are 253 working days and 2008 hours. Two holidays fall on a Saturday: 1 May and 25 December.
Christmas Eve has been a day off since 2025
From 2025, 24 December is a statutory day off in Poland. December therefore has one working day fewer than in earlier years whenever Christmas Eve falls on a weekday - and when it falls on a Saturday it lowers the norm without changing the working days, like any other holiday.
In December 2027 Christmas Eve is a Friday, Christmas Day a Saturday and the second day a Sunday. The norm drops from 184 to 168 hours and 22 working days remain.
What the sum does not cover
- Part-time work. Multiply the norm by your fraction of full time: half time in May 2027 is 72 hours.
- Equivalent and shift systems. The norm for the settlement period is the same, but the employer's schedule decides the hours per day.
- Leave and sick days. They reduce the hours to be worked, not the norm of the period.
The figures, ready made
The working days calculator computes both numbers for any range of dates and lists the holidays inside it, flagging the Saturday ones. Year pages such as working days and hours in 2027 carry a table for all twelve months and every public holiday with its weekday.
If you are adding up actual hours worked rather than the norm, see how to count working hours.