Workers in a spiral of low wages and poverty
May 1, which arose with the spread of the fight for rights initiated by workers to improve their working conditions, is celebrated as labor and labor day all over the world.
As workers across the country celebrate Labor and Solidarity Day on May 1, workers’ living conditions are high on this year’s agenda.
Although living conditions continue to become more difficult by the day due to inflation that has risen sharply in recent years, the rise in wages remains below the inflation rate and workers’ wages continue to melt.
THE GREAT MOST OF WORKERS ARE DISUNITED
According to TUIK data, there are 14,515,554 paid employees in Turkey as of February 2023. This figure does not include unregistered workers.
According to labor force data, in the fourth quarter of 2022, total employment in Turkey was 31,556,000 people annually, and 22,604,000 of them were salaried or casual workers.
Thus, the ratio of paid employees to total employees in Turkey was 71.6 percent. The ratio between wage earners and the population of working age was 34.8 per cent.
On the other hand, the unionization rate among workers remained quite low in 2023.
According to the January 2023 statistics from the Ministry of Labor and Social Security on the number of workers and union members in the business branches, only 14.42 percent of workers are unionized. The number of unionized workers is only 2 million 330 thousand 988.
Considering that some of the operating unions do not have the authority to bargain collectively, it was found that the vast majority of workers were unable to negotiate a collective right with employers.
MINIMUM CHARGE RATE IS TOO HIGH
With the latest increase, the minimum wage was raised to TL 8,506 in 2023. Salaried workers in Turkey have had to deal with low wages and melting wages against rising inflation in recent years.
According to DİSK-AR data, as of 2022, approximately 65 percent of private sector workers in Turkey received wages close to the minimum wage (around 10 percent).
However, 22 percent of private sector workers could not even make the minimum wage. In the private sector, the rate of those working at or below the minimum wage was 50.4%, and the rate of those working around the minimum wage was 64.7%.
WORKERS FIGHT AGAINST INFLATION
In Turkey, in March 2023, official annual inflation was 50.51 percent, while food inflation was 67.89 percent. With the effect of currency shocks and the increase in energy prices last year, inflation rose to 85.51%, the highest in 24 years, in October, closing the year at 64.27%.
The hunger limit announced by Türk-İş in Turkey, on the other hand, was 10 thousand 135 TL (monthly food expenditure required for a family of 4 to have a healthy, balanced and adequate diet). The poverty threshold (amount of mandatory monthly expenses such as food, housing, transportation, education, etc.) was 33,000 TL.
While the minimum wage was increased each year, the hunger limit, which was about 1 minimum wage in January due to rising energy and food prices, exceeded the minimum wage in subsequent months, and workers with minimum wage continued to live below the minimum wage. online for most of each year.
WORKERS EARN BELOW THE FARM LIMIT
Millions of workers living on the minimum wage have already continued to live below the poverty line for most of the year. The minimum wage, which was below the hunger limit in the second month of the year in 2022, remained below the hunger limit this year before it was captured by workers. In January 2023, the hunger limit increased to 8,864 TL, exceeding the minimum wage.
Last year, the hunger limit exceeded the minimum wage in February due to soaring energy and food prices. Although the minimum wage increased to TL 5,500 with the provisional increase in July, it remained below the TL 6,856 hunger limit at the time.
While the minimum wage was below the hunger limit, public employees were also condemned to hunger limit levels. While the lowest salary of a civil servant in Turkey is currently at the level of 11,396 TL, even the salary of a teacher (1/4), which is 32,000 TL, has remained below the threshold of poverty.
DIVISION FOLLOWS CLASH
On the other hand, the labor share of national income and growth in Turkey continued to decline year on year.
When the seasonally adjusted data are analyzed using the method of income at current prices, it is observed that the relationship between labor payments and GDP decreased from 27.6 percent in the second quarter of 2021 to 21.4 percent in the fourth quarter of 2022. In the first quarter of 2022, this rate was determined at 24.7 percent.
According to seasonally adjusted data, the ratio between the net operating surplus, which is the share of capital, and GDP increased to 50.4 percent from 46.3 percent in the same period a year earlier.
Although the labor share rose again in 2019 after the 2018 currency crisis, the distributional shock that began with the coronavirus pandemic in 2020 accelerated with the 2021 currency crisis. This trend continued in 2022.
LONG WORKING HOURS
On the other hand, one of the important problems of the workers in Turkey was the working hours. According to OECD data, Turkey ranked first among 36 countries for which data on long working hours was collected.
In average weekly working hours, Turkey ranked second among the 34 OECD countries, after Colombia with 45.6 hours. The OECD average was 37.2 hours.