Stop raising the minimum wage, look at the labels…

The Minimum Wage Determination Commission has determined the net minimum wage at TL 11,402 with an increase of 34 percent from July.

Vedat Işıkhan, Minister of Labor and Social Security, said: “We have made an interim increase at a rate that includes the welfare share well above the inflation rate. In this way, we do not oppress the working population with inflation, but also give an important part of the increase in welfare.

Özgür Burak Akkol, President of the Turkish Confederation of Employers’ Associations (TİSK), said: “We are working for a balanced figure. I am pleased to say yes to this figure, who takes care of employment by pushing all our means to the maximum”.

UNIONS MARKET WARNING

Türk İş President Ergün Atalay said about the new minimum wage that will be implemented in the second half of 2023: “I hope that this inflation will be controlled and there will be no increases. It doesn’t matter if the minimum wage is raised and inflation doesn’t reach a certain point. “The prices in the market must be controlled as soon as possible,” he said.

When the market prices pointed out by Ergün Atalay are analyzed, it is seen that there is a gap between the change of labels and the increase in the minimum wage of 34 percent. Price increases in the first 6 months of the year reveal that millions of people trying to survive on the minimum wage will have more difficulty accessing especially meat, milk and dry foods.

This is the change experienced by some products in a chain of stores between January 2023 and June 2023:

IT WILL BE BELOW THE FASTEST LIMIT AGAIN

With rising exchange rates triggering a new wave of inflation, the minimum wage is expected to fall back below the hunger limit.

The hunger limit announced by Türk-İş was 10,360 TL in May 2023. The poverty line was calculated at 33,750 TL.