Opposition leaders criticize minimum wage level

ANKARA

Main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu has criticized the government’s recent increase in the minimum wage, saying that the level is even below the food inflation in Türkiye.

“Neither the minimum wage earner’s deserved happened nor did the tax burden of small traders is reduced,” Kılıçdaroğlu tweeted on Dec. 22.

“The real issue is to create a Türkiye that does not condescend to the minimum wage. It also happens with industrial transformation. We will not only send the Palace away, we will also bury this order, which they took from the poor and gave to the rich, into history,” the CHP leader said.

İYİ (Good) Party leader Meral Akşener also criticized the level of the minimum salary, saying it was below the hunger threshold.

“Mr. [President Recep Tayyip] Erdoğan announced the minimum wage as 8,500 Turkish Liras. We made all the calculations and declared it as 9,600 liras. The hunger limit will be 8,700 liras in January, so the minimum wage will fall below the hunger limit again,” she said in an interview with FOX TV.

Access to food and heating is a huge problem in Türkiye at the moment, she said and also criticized a 62 percent increase in motor vehicle tax. The burden will continue for the Turkish citizens, she added.

Erdoğan announced on Dec. 22 that the net monthly minimum wage will be 8,500 Turkish Liras ($455) starting from January, with an increase of 54.66 percent.