This skill is still an asset on your CV. Earnings higher by one third

The Fluentbe language platform team analyzed over a thousand job advertisements on leading Polish portals, focusing on the impact of the required knowledge of foreign languages ​​on earnings.

Does knowing a language increase your earnings?

This requirement appeared in every fourth job offer. It turns out that in job advertisements with required knowledge of a foreign language, the minimum wages are higher by one third. The rate increases with the required language level: moving from the communicative to the advanced level costs an additional approx. PLN 1,500 per month. The authors of the analysis indicate that among offers requiring a language, very highly paid positions are much more common.

– An advertisement with a language requirement usually means a broader scope of responsibilities. The employee talks to the client or supplier himself, reads the documentation himself and does not need an intermediary. Therefore, the employer pays not for the language itself, but for one person to handle a task that would otherwise require the employment of someone else or the support of a translator – comments Miłosz Ryniecki from Fluentbe, a platform for learning foreign languages ​​online.

– The popularization of remote work and international teams has resulted in many more such positions – he adds.

Higher rates are not limited to the upper limit of the offer, which is only a promise of a generous bonus. The advantage of offers with language is identical at both ends of the salary range: PLN 8,000 compared to PLN 6,000 for the minimum and PLN 10,000 compared to PLN 8,000 for the maximum. This means that knowledge of the language does not only increase the hypothetical maximum, but also the guaranteed amount – the one the employee receives at the start.

The most frequently required language level remains B1-B2. It was indicated by 57 percent. advertisements in which the employer specified expectations on the European Language Proficiency Scale (CEFR). At the same time, it should be noted that 40 percent advertisements with the required language did not use this scale, but defined the necessary competences descriptively.

The authors of the analysis emphasize, however, that not all of this difference in earnings is due to language knowledge alone. It is required more often in industries and positions that are better paid anyway. Appropriate language skills, however, open access to this part of the labor market – without them, the best-paid offers remain beyond the candidate’s reach.

– I wouldn’t want anyone to read these numbers as a promise: get a certificate, you’ll get two thousand more. That’s not how it works. Rather, these data show where there is money in the labor market and what competences provide access to it. An employer will almost always want to check whether the candidate can cope with everyday work – explains Miłosz Ryniecki.

“The problem is the lockdown.”

And this is where the problem often arises, even though the candidate often knows a foreign language quite well. How is this possible? – The problem is the block from speaking. We meet people who read English-language documentation without a problem, but become silent when it comes to answering the phone from a contractor. That’s why we focus on encouraging people to speak – also through conversations with an AI teacher, which students are not as afraid of as conversations with a human – emphasizes the Fluentbe representative.

Fluentbe’s analysis covered 1,005 job offers (with a full-time employment contract and salary ranges) published in the period from July 6 to July 16, 2026 on OLX Praca (362 ads), Pracuj.pl (411) and RocketJobs (232 ads).