In short and to the point:
  • Paid leave of 20 or 26 days a year exists only under an employment contract, under Art. 152 and 154 of the Labor Code. Through a JDG there’s no such right by law, so a solid B2B contract writes in a specific number of paid break days upfront, instead of relying on the client’s good will.
  • For the first 33 days of illness a year, the employer pays automatically, 80% of pay. Through a JDG, sick pay is voluntary and only kicks in after 90 days of contributions, so it’s worth activating that insurance from day one of your business, not waiting until you’re already sick.
  • The overtime limit under an employment contract is 150 hours a year with a 50% or 100% surcharge. Through a JDG there’s no such statutory limit, so it’s worth writing a separate, higher hourly rate for hours beyond your agreed monthly scope directly into the contract.
  • Protection against dismissal under an employment contract means a notice period from two weeks to three months. Through a JDG, only what’s written in the contract applies, so a longer notice period or compensation for early termination is a matter of negotiation, not law.
  • The pension contribution, roughly 20.4% on top of gross pay, is paid by the employer under an employment contract. Through a JDG you pay it yourself from your declared base, so the size of that base, and any IKE/IKZE savings, is your only lever.
  • This comparison isn’t a call to demand a switch to an employment contract. It shows which of these five points you can close through the contract itself, and where you genuinely need a deliberate financial reserve.

Why it’s worth checking these 5 points in your own B2B contract

This text isn’t a call to demand an employment contract instead of B2B. We cover separately, in the series article “Can you refuse a B2B contract and demand an employment contract instead“, whether you can demand that switch and when it makes sense. This text has a different purpose: to show, point by point, which five Labor Code guarantees you don’t automatically get through a JDG, and what you can write into your own contract to close some of them yourself. Without these specifics, a B2B contract gets written blindly, copied from a template online, rather than negotiated with specific clauses in mind.

The difference in protection exists regardless of how much a contractor earns. A higher rate on the invoice financially compensates for part of the missing guarantees, but it doesn’t replace them legally: an employment contract’s guarantee kicks in automatically the moment illness, dismissal, or pregnancy happens, while through a JDG, whether any protection exists at all depends on what’s specifically written in the contract and whether voluntary insurance was activated beforehand.

Through a JDG, protection doesn’t kick in automatically like under the Labor Code. Only what’s written into the contract beforehand, or activated as voluntary insurance, actually applies.

Five JDG gaps, and how to close them in the contract

GuaranteeEmployment contractJDG / B2B with no clauseWhat to write into the contract
Paid leave20 days (under 10 years of service) or 26 days (10+ years of service), can’t be waived¹ ²Nothing by lawA specific number of paid break days a year, e.g. 20, and a notice period for telling the client
Pay during illness80% of pay for the first 33 days a year (14 days after turning 50), 100% for pregnancy or an accident on the way to work³Voluntary insurance, the right kicks in after 90 days of paying the contribution⁴Voluntary ZUS sickness insurance from month one of the business
Pay beyond 33/14 days of illnessFrom ZUS, zasiłek chorobowy (sickness benefit), 80% (100% for pregnancy), up to 182 days (270 for pregnancy or tuberculosis)⁴The same zasiłek chorobowy, if voluntarily insured, with the same limitThe same insurance keeps working automatically, nothing extra to write in
OvertimeLimit of 150 hrs/year, 48 hrs/week including regular hours, 50% or 100% surcharge⁵No statutory limit or surchargeAn hourly rate above the agreed monthly scope, e.g. +50% past 160 hours
Notice period on dismissalFrom 2 weeks to 3 months depending on tenure⁶Whatever term is written in the contract, often shorterA longer notice period, e.g. 30-60 days, or compensation for early termination
Protection for pregnancy and maternity leaveBan on dismissal during pregnancy and maternity leave⁷None, the contract ends on its own termsCompensation for ending the contract without cause during pregnancy, if the client agrees
Pre-retirement protectionBan on dismissal within 4 years of retirement age⁸NoneA longer notice period for cooperation lasting more than a few years
Pension and Labour Fund contribution from the “employer’s” sidePaid by the employer on top of gross pay, ≈20.4% of the base⁹You pay the whole amount yourself, both sharesA higher declared ZUS base, or regular payments into an IKE/IKZE

Paid leave on a JDG, how many days and how to put it in writing

The right to annual, continuous, paid leave belongs only to an employee under an employment contract, and an employee can’t waive that right even voluntarily¹. The leave allowance is 20 days for less than 10 years of service, and 26 days for 10 years or more²; this tenure counts not only time worked under an employment contract, but also periods of education (up to 8 years for a higher-education degree)². If an employee didn’t have time to use their leave before being dismissed, they’re owed a cash equivalent for the unused days¹⁰.

Through a JDG, none of these rules apply, because the Labor Code only governs an employment relationship (stosunek pracy), not a civil-law contract for services. Every day a contractor doesn’t work is, for the client, a day with no invoice, unless the contract itself expressly says otherwise.

Example 1. Dmytro has worked under an employment contract for 4 years, meaning he gets 20 days of leave a year. He takes two weeks off in the summer. Does he get paid for those two weeks? Yes. Leave is paid in full, and the employer can’t reduce the amount or demand the time be made up.

Example 2. Hanna, working through a JDG, has been invoicing her client monthly for three years now, and the contract doesn’t say a word about leave. She takes two weeks off in the summer. Does she get paid for that period? No. No invoice, no pay, unless the contract set up a paid break in the services beforehand. The difference from Dmytro’s example isn’t about the amount on the invoice, it’s about whether there’s any legal basis at all to demand pay while resting.

How to put this in writing. The simplest fix is one extra clause: a specific number of paid break days a year (commonly 10-20, depending on your rate and negotiation), a notice period for telling the client in advance, and a clear statement that these days don’t affect the total annual contract value. It’s a contractual term, not a statutory one, but it’s the only way to stop time off from automatically meaning lost income.

Sick pay on a JDG, when the payout kicks in and how to prepare

Under an employment contract, for the first 33 days of incapacity for work in a calendar year (14 days if the employee has turned 50), the employer pays 80% of pay automatically, with no application to ZUS³. This rises to 100% if the incapacity resulted from an accident on the way to or from work, or from an illness during pregnancy³. After this period ends, ZUS takes over the payment as zasiłek chorobowy (sickness benefit): the same percentage, 80% (100% for pregnancy), up to a maximum of 182 sick days a year, or 270 days for pregnancy or tuberculosis⁴.

Through a JDG, the right to sickness benefit from ZUS only exists if the contractor voluntarily pays the sickness insurance contribution (2.45% of the declared base), and the right only kicks in after 90 days of paying that contribution continuously⁴. There’s no separate employer to cover the first 33 days: if a contractor gets sick within the first three months of voluntary insurance, they get nothing, no matter how many contributions they paid before that.

Example 1: Oksana on the simplified ZUS scheme, insured for over 90 days. Oksana has been paying the minimum sickness contribution based on the minimum base (5652 zł for 2026 under the simplified ZUS option) for two years now, well past the 90-day waiting period. She gets sick for 14 days. Does she receive sickness benefit? Yes, partially. She’ll receive roughly 995 zł a month in benefit (80% of the base after a 13.71% deduction), or roughly 465 zł for 14 days, far less than the real income she would have earned working those two weeks¹¹.

Example 2: Solomiia, on a JDG for her second month, with her voluntary contribution just barely in effect. Solomiia opened a JDG two months ago and immediately applied for voluntary sickness insurance. She gets sick for 14 days. Does she receive sickness benefit? No. Before the 90-day waiting period ends, there’s no right yet to zasiłek chorobowy⁴, so Solomiia gets nothing from ZUS for those two weeks, and if her client isn’t willing to pay for the break voluntarily, the income for that period is lost entirely.

The line between these two examples isn’t the size of the contribution, it’s simply how many days of continuous voluntary insurance have already passed. A contractor who just opened a JDG is left with zero protection during exactly those first months, before the financial cushion has had time to build up.

How to prepare for this. Voluntary ZUS sickness insurance activates alongside your first contribution after registering a JDG, not the moment you actually need sick leave, since the right to a payout only kicks in after 90 days⁴. The cost is 2.45% of your declared base, so for most contractors it’s a small, predictable monthly amount in exchange for a real payout after three months.

B2B contractor without paid sick leave or other employee benefitsB2B contractor without paid sick leave or other employee benefits

Overtime on a JDG, how to write the rate and hour limit into your contract

Under an employment contract, overtime work for the employer’s special needs is capped at 150 hours a calendar year for one employee, unless the company’s internal rules set a different limit⁵. Weekly working time, including overtime, can’t exceed an average of 48 hours over the reference period⁵. For each overtime hour, the employee is owed a surcharge of 50% of pay on a regular day, and 100% at night, on a day off, or on a holiday, on top of regular pay⁵.

Through a JDG, none of these limits apply, because the Labor Code’s working-time rules only cover employment relationships. How many hours a contractor works, and whether they get paid extra for overtime, depends entirely on what’s written in their service contract, and a typical contract doesn’t mention it at all.

Example 1: within the limit. A company asks a developer on an employment contract to work overtime because of an urgent product release: 120 hours of overtime accumulate over the year. Is that legal without changing the internal rules? Yes. 120 hours doesn’t exceed the standard limit of 150 hours a year⁵, and each hour is owed a 50% or 100% surcharge depending on when it’s worked.

Example 2: beyond the limit. The same company asks the same employee to work overtime even more intensively, and 200 hours accumulate over the year. Is that legal? Partly, it depends on the internal rules. If a collective agreement, work rules, or the employment contract expressly set a different, higher annual overtime limit, 200 hours could be legal⁵. Without such a specific provision, the employer has exceeded the standard 150-hour limit, and that’s already a violation PIP can fine.

Example 3: a JDG contractor. The same urgent-release scenario, but a contractor working through a JDG puts in 200 hours beyond the usual scope on the same client’s project. Are they entitled to a 50% or 100% surcharge for those hours? No, unless the contract says so. There’s no law requiring a client to pay extra for a contractor’s overtime; there are only the terms of the service contract itself, and if it has no clause about extra pay beyond the agreed amount, the developer worked 200 hours for the same fixed rate.

How to put this in writing. Since there’s no statutory limit or surcharge, you have to write both in yourself: a monthly hour range covered by your base rate, and a separate, higher hourly rate for hours beyond that range. Without this clause, 200 hours and 160 hours in a month cost the client the same amount, and the contractor absorbs the difference in their own time.

Ending a JDG contract, how to extend the notice period

The notice period for dismissal from an employment contract depends on tenure at the company: two weeks if tenure is under 6 months, one month for tenure of 6 months or more, three months for tenure of 3 years or more⁶. During this period, the employee receives full pay, even if the employer releases them from the duty to actually work⁶.

Two extra layers of protection apply to specific groups of employees. An employer cannot dismiss an employee during pregnancy or maternity leave on their own initiative, except in the case of company bankruptcy or gross misconduct by the employee herself⁷. An employer also cannot dismiss an employee who has no more than four years left until retirement age, if their tenure allows them to earn a pension once they reach that age⁸.

Through a JDG, none of these three protections exist, because a service contract is governed by the Civil Code, not the Labor Code. The terms for ending the contract are whatever the parties wrote, and if the contract allows ending it with two weeks’ notice and no reason given, that’s exactly how it works, regardless of how long the cooperation has lasted, or the contractor’s pregnancy or age.

Example. Iaryna, working through a JDG, has been cooperating with one client for two years; in her seventh month of pregnancy, she receives notice that the contract will end in 30 days, as the contract itself allows. Does the law protect her the way an employment contract would? No. Art. 177 of the Labor Code, which bans dismissing a pregnant employee, only applies to employment relationships⁷. If Iaryna’s actual working conditions match the criteria of an employment relationship (a single client, a fixed schedule, subordination), she has a path forward through having the contract recognized as an employment contract, in which case protection against dismissal applies retroactively; we cover this in the series article “What happens if your B2B contract gets reclassified as employment: rights and payments“. But that’s a separate, slow legal path, not automatic protection the moment she receives the notice, the way it would work under an employment contract.

How to put this in writing. The notice period on a JDG is a purely negotiable matter: 30, 60, or 90 days instead of the typical two weeks, or compensation equal to a set number of monthly invoices if the contract ends without cause. This doesn’t replace the Labor Code’s protection for pregnant employees or those near retirement age, but it significantly reduces the risk of losing your entire income overnight.

Pension on a JDG, how to consciously increase your future benefit

Under an employment contract, the employer pays pension and disability insurance contributions, accident insurance, and Labour Fund contributions from their own side, on top of the employee’s gross pay: roughly 9.76% for pension, 6.5% for disability, about 1.67% for accident insurance, and 2.45% for the Labour Fund and Solidarity Fund, together roughly 20.4% of the base⁹. These contributions don’t reduce the employee’s take-home pay: they’re an additional cost for the employer, and at the same time they accumulate on that same employee’s future pension account.

Through a JDG, there’s no second party to pay that share. The contractor is simultaneously the “employer” and the “employee” for ZUS purposes, so they pay both shares of the contributions out of their own income. There’s one more detail rarely explained: an entrepreneur’s pension contribution is calculated not from what they actually earned, but from a declared base, which under the full (“large”) ZUS scheme in 2026 amounts to a minimum of 5203.80-5652 zł depending on the calculation method, and doesn’t depend on whether the contractor earned 8,000 zł a month or 25,000 zł¹². This means a high-earning JDG contractor’s pension account grows just as slowly as a much lower-earning contractor’s, if both declared the minimum base, whereas under an employment contract, the pension contribution scales proportionally with actual pay.

Under an employment contract, the pension contribution scales with pay. On a JDG with the minimum declared base, the pension account grows equally slowly whether the contractor earns 8,000 or 25,000 złoty a month.

How to address this (in your contract and with ZUS). This isn’t a contract clause, it’s a decision about how high to declare your contribution base. A contractor who declares a base above the minimum pays more each month, but their pension account grows proportionally, similar to an employment contract. An alternative or addition is regular payments into an IKE or IKZE, where the decision and pace of saving depend entirely on the contractor, not on an employer, who simply doesn’t exist on a JDG.

We provide a detailed breakdown of the full cost of ZUS contributions for both the employer and the contractor, with specific amounts on both sides, in the series article “How much does reclassifying a B2B contract into an employment contract cost: the real ZUS and PIT numbers”.

Frequently asked questions

Can I negotiate paid leave with my client on a JDG? Yes, and it’s the simplest way to partially close this gap: write a specific number of paid break days for the services into the contract. But that’s a contractual arrangement, not a statutory guarantee, so it only applies within the limits written into it, and the client can refuse to keep that term in a new contract.

Should I voluntarily pay the sickness contribution on a JDG? It depends on your financial reserves and your risk of a long illness. The contribution is small (2.45% of the declared base), but the right to a payout only kicks in after 90 days of continuous payment⁴, so it’s worth deciding in advance, not at the moment you already need sick leave.

Does the absence of these guarantees mean my contract definitely isn’t an employment contract? No. The name of the contract, and the fact that it doesn’t mention leave or sick pay, don’t determine the legal nature of the relationship. If your actual work matches the criteria for an employment relationship under Art. 22 § 1 of the Labor Code (subordination, schedule, workplace), the contract can be recognized as an employment contract regardless of what’s written on the cover page; we cover these criteria in detail in the series article “Who risks losing B2B status after the PIP 2026 reform“.

Do I have any protection at all if the client cancels the contract without notice? It depends on the terms of the service contract itself, and on the general rules of the Civil Code on breach of obligations, not the Labor Code. If the contract specifies a notice period or compensation for early termination, you have the right to demand exactly those terms be honored, but that’s contractual protection, not statutory protection.

Can I get these guarantees retroactively if my contract gets reclassified as employment? Yes, partially. Recognizing the relationship as employment opens the door to claiming an unpaid leave equivalent, underpaid sick pay, and compensation for overtime for the period when the relationship was actually an employment relationship. We cover the specific payments and procedure in the series article “What happens if your B2B contract gets reclassified as employment: rights and payments“.

Does a clause in a B2B contract give the same protection as the Labor Code? No. A contract clause is a contractual obligation between the parties, not a statutory right: the client can refuse to keep that clause in a new contract, and enforcing it sometimes requires going through civil court rather than PIP. Even so, a well-written clause is the only real tool a JDG contractor has, so it’s worth having, even knowing it’s weaker protection than a statutory one.

Which is more financially worthwhile: a JDG with all this risk, or an employment contract? It depends on your specific rate, tenure, family plans, and risk tolerance, not a one-size-fits-all answer. This comparison gives you the facts for your own decision; we cover when and how you can legally demand a switch to an employment contract in the series article “Can you refuse a B2B contract and demand an employment contract instead“.

What to do with this information

This article isn’t telling you that you need to change your form of cooperation. It shows which of these five gaps you can close through the contract itself, and which ones genuinely require a deliberate financial reserve or voluntary insurance. The next step depends on your role.

If you work through your own JDG. Order the online B2B audit: you fill out a questionnaire about your situation (tenure, clients, actual working conditions), and within 48 hours you get a report with a reclassification risk category and recommendations on whether it’s worth closing some of these gaps in the contract itself.

If you own or run HR at a company with several B2B contractors. Order the B2B operating model audit: it checks how closely the absence of these guarantees in your contracts matches the actual practice of how your contractors work, and whether that creates systemic reclassification risk for the whole company at once.

Fill out the B2B audit questionnaire

Sources

  1. Kodeks pracy (Polish Labor Code), consolidated text, Journal of Laws 2025 item 277, Art. 152 § 1-2
  2. Kodeks pracy (Polish Labor Code), consolidated text, Journal of Laws 2025 item 277, Art. 154 § 1, Art. 155, Art. 1541
  3. Kodeks pracy (Polish Labor Code), consolidated text, Journal of Laws 2025 item 277, Art. 92 § 1, 4 i 5
  4. Act of 25 June 1999 on cash benefits from social insurance in case of sickness and maternity, consolidated text, Journal of Laws 2026 item 854, Art. 4, Art. 8, Art. 11
  5. Kodeks pracy (Polish Labor Code), consolidated text, Journal of Laws 2025 item 277, Art. 131, Art. 151 § 3-4, Art. 1511 § 1
  6. Kodeks pracy (Polish Labor Code), consolidated text, Journal of Laws 2025 item 277, Art. 36 § 1, Art. 362
  7. Kodeks pracy (Polish Labor Code), consolidated text, Journal of Laws 2025 item 277, Art. 177 § 1 i 4
  8. Kodeks pracy (Polish Labor Code), consolidated text, Journal of Laws 2025 item 277, Art. 39
  9. Act on the social insurance system, Journal of Laws 2026 item 199, Art. 22 (contribution rates); the same figure cited in the series article “How much does reclassifying a B2B contract into an employment contract cost”
  10. Kodeks pracy (Polish Labor Code), consolidated text, Journal of Laws 2025 item 277, Art. 171 § 1
  11. ZUS (Social Insurance Institution), official guide to sickness benefit, the 13.71% reduction rule and the 80%/100% benefit rate
  12. ZUS, Contributions of Entrepreneurs in 2026 (official bulletin), minimum social security contribution base

Legal status as of: September 27, 2026.

This article is not legal advice. Every situation is individual and depends on the specific contract and circumstances. Author: Valerii Kushnirskyi, in-house legal practitioner at MojaFirma.