Minimum wage talks set to kick off

ANKARA

The commission, comprised of representatives from the government, employers' and labor unions, is set to hold the first round of talks on the minimum wage for millions of workers today.

The Minimum Wage Determination Commission will meet four times in December before announcing the wage, which will take effect in 2024.

In the face of rampant inflation, the minimum wage, which took effect in 2023, was hiked twice, once at the end of 2022 and again in July 2023, to a net of 11,402 Turkish Liras.

Labor and Social Security Minister Vedat Işıkhan has suggested that, however, this time, the minimum wage will be increased only once.

There are some 8 million people receiving minimum wage in Türkiye, according to Ergün Atalay, the leader of the labor union Türk-İş.

It is not fair to increase the minimum wage only once as long as prices keep rising, said Atalay last week, commenting on the negotiations.

The minimum wage should be above what Türk-İş describes as the “hunger line,” Atalay said.

At the negotiating table, the union will demand a minimum wage well above the hunger line, according to Atalay.

In a report released last month, the union calculated the “hunger line,” which is the monthly food expenditure of a family of four, at 14,026 liras for November.

Meanwhile, a survey by Mercer showed that companies plan to increase wages for their employees by an average of 50 percent in 2024.

Some 1,744 companies from different industries participated in the survey.

Around 59 percent of participants said they would hike wages once in 2024, while 33 percent plan two hikes in the next year. According to the survey, 8 percent of the companies plan to increase wages three times or more in 2024.