DISK announces demand for minimum wage increase

The Confederation of Revolutionary Workers’ Unions of Turkey (DİSK) announced its demand for the 2023 minimum wage. DİSK President Arzu Çerkezoğlu said: “The minimum wage should be TL 13,200 net.”

Çerkezoğlu said in his statement:

“Today, the income of workers and public servants continue to fall due to high inflation. Even according to TUIK’s undercalculated figures, inflation was 84 percent and food inflation was over 100 percent.

High inflation also negatively affects distribution relationships. Income inequality is on the rise. While the labor force share of national income is declining, the capital share is increasing. The starvation wage became the median wage. While the minimum wage rate in EU countries was 4 percent, it exceeded 50 percent in Turkey. There are also millions who cannot reach the minimum wage.

Although our country has become a minimum wage society, the purchasing power of the minimum wage has decreased by the day. Today, when we talk about minimum wage, we are talking about average wage”.

DISC REQUESTS

DİSK’s demands regarding the minimum wage were as follows:

* The minimum wage must be updated 4 times a year until inflation drops to single digits.

* When determining the minimum wage, food inflation and low-income per capita income should be taken as a basis, and it should be ensured that the minimum wage gets its share of growth.

*Based on the assumption that there are two employees in a household, that household should be able to bring in an income at least as much as the poverty line.

* In addition to the data exemption provided for the minimum wage, the first tax bracket after the minimum wage must be reduced to 10 percent.

* The lowest pension salary must be raised to the level of the minimum wage

* The minimum wage must be 13 thousand 200 TL net.