Poles See Retirement as a Choice Between Desire and Financial Necessity

Polish workers want to retire earlier than they expect to, revealing a gap between their preferred lifestyle and their financial calculations. Women surveyed said they would ideally stop working at 58, while men chose an average age just below 59. Their expected actual retirement age, however, was 63.3 years, or 62 among women.

The figures come from SD Worx’s 2026 HR & Payroll Pulse, which surveyed more than 5,900 employers and 16,500 employees in 16 European countries, including Poland. Polish respondents stood slightly below the wider European averages. Across Europe, workers said they would like to retire at 59.8 but expected to do so at 65.1.

In Poland, the strongest reason for wanting to leave work earlier was the prospect of having more time for themselves and their families. More than 54% of respondents gave that answer, including nearly 56% of women. Health was cited by more than 49%, including almost 52% of women. Others wanted to leave their current jobs sooner to pursue new goals and activities, a motivation reported by 44% of women and 37% of men.

At the same time, a growing share of people expect to remain economically active after reaching retirement age. Some 42.1% of Polish workers said they would consider continuing to work, well above the European average of 26.8%. Paulina Zasempa, HR head at SD Worx Poland, described this as a more realistic approach to future finances alongside continued expectations for a good quality of life.

ZUS data also points to longer working lives. The number of working people of retirement age in Poland rose by more than half over the past decade, reaching nearly 880,000 last year. The survey showed that women expected to retire at 62 on average, two years after the statutory retirement age.