Price inspections and fines amid minimum wage hike

ANKARA

Teams from the Trade Ministry have intensified price checks across the country to see if retailers are passing the hike in minimum wage onto consumers.

This month, the minimum wage for 2025 was raised by 30 percent to a net of 22,104 Turkish Liras ($628) per month.

Officials have carried out inspections on more than 4,000 businesses and prices of nearly 400,000 products, the Trade Ministry said in a statement.

During three-day inspections, they fined companies a total of 10 million Turkish Liras ($283,4000) over exorbitantly price increases, the ministry said.

Officials conducted inspections at 605 supermarkets in Istanbul, 325 supermarkets in the southern province of Antalya and 322 supermarkets in Ankara, according to the statement.

They found over 2,000 violations in Istanbul, where companies were slapped with 4.7 million liras in fines.

“Within the scope of the inspections in 81 provinces, actions were taken against 2,668 companies on suspicion of unfair price increase,” the ministry said.

Those companies were asked to submit their defense and to provide invoices for three months, the ministry added.

The companies, which were found to have committed to exorbitant price increases, will be referred to a special board for further examination.

The board may impose a fine between 100,0000 to 1 million million liras on the companies, if there are found to have violated the rules.