While money may not buy happiness, it is an important means to achieving higher living standards and thus greater well-being. Higher economic wealth may also improve access to quality education, healthcare and housing.

Household net-adjusted disposable income is the amount of money that a household earns each year after tax. It represents the money available to a household for spending on goods or services. In Poland, the average household net-adjusted disposable income is 14 508 USD a year.

Household financial wealth is the total value of a household’s financial worth. In Poland, the average household wealth is estimated at 8 101 USD.

Having a job brings many important benefits, including: providing a source of income (zapewnienie źródła dochodu), improving social inclusion (poprawienie integracji społecznej), fulfilling one’s own aspirations (realizacja własnych aspiracji), building self-esteem (budowanie poczucia własnej wartości) and developing skills and competencies (rozwijanie umiejętności i kompetencji). In Poland, more than 59% of the working-age population aged 15 to 64 has a paid job.

Young Polish people aged 15-24 are facing difficulties, with an unemployment rate of 23.7% compared with the OECD average of 16.7%.

Unemployed persons are defined as those who are not currently working but are willing to do so and actively searching for work. Long-term unemployment can have a large negative effect on feelings of well-being and self-worth and result in a loss of skills, further reducing employability. In Poland, the percentage of the labour force that has been unemployed for a year or longer is currently at 2.5%. The long-term unemployment rate for men is slightly lower than for women, with respectively 2.4% and 2.6%.

The wages and other monetary benefits that come with employment are an important aspect of job quality. In Poland, people earn 18 172 US dollars per year on average. Not everyone earns that amount however. Whereas the top 20% of the population earn 36 096 US dollars per year, the bottom 20% live on 8 331 per year.

Another essential factor of employment quality is job security. Employees working on temporary contracts are more vulnerable than workers with an open-ended contract. In Poland, close to 9% of total employees have a contract of 6 months or less. This figure suggests Poland has been successful in stabilising working contracts and encouraging open-ended contracts.

Do następnego razu… (Till next time…)