2023 Minimum Wage Announced in Turkey
The minimum wage increase rate was announced as 54.66 percent. President Erdoğan announced that the minimum wage to be applied in 2023 is 8 thousand 506 TL.
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan announced the amount of the minimum wage to be applied in 2023 on a live broadcast.
During the statement, Vedat Bilgin, Minister of Labor and Social Affairs, sat on one side of President Erdogan, and Özgür Burak Akkol, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Turkish Confederation of Employers’ Unions (TİSK), on the other. The worker representative, Türk-İş President Ergün Atalay, was not at the table.
Stating that the parties could not agree on a common figure, Erdoğan said, “The minimum wage to be applied in 2023 is 8 thousand 506 TL.”
The total cost of the minimum wage to the employer increased to 11 thousand 759 TL. The gross minimum wage was 10 thousand 8 TL and the net minimum wage was 8 thousand 506 TL. The net minimum wage rose to $455 at today’s rates. The minimum wage support to be given to the employer was increased from 100 lira to 250 lira.
Headlines from President Erdogan’s statement are as follows:
– As the government, we respect the proposals and justifications of all parties. Our duty is to ensure that the most accurate, equitable and sustainable results emerge for our country and nation.
– By approaching the issue from this perspective, we made sincere efforts to reach a reasonable compromise between the parties. We would like to have employee representatives among us, but we could not leave the minimum wage, which determines the minimum wage level of employees and many incomes indexed to it, since neither party participated.
– The 2023 minimum wage figure is in line with the general economic and social outlook of our country. We have achieved the most tangible results of our efforts to grow through investment, employment, production, exports and current surplus in working life.
– With 37.6 million employment, the highest number of employees in history has been reached. When the global crisis has shaken even developed countries in a serious process, Turkey’s continued development by increasing is followed with interest all over the world. We use it to improve the quality of life of all our 85 million citizens.
– In the past weeks, we have resolved with understanding from the additional indicator of public servants to the transfer of contracted employees to the staff. In this way, we will determine the increase rates in civil servants and pensions.
– As it is known, the minimum wage, which was 184 TL in 2002 in our country, increased 30 times in nominal terms and 142 percent in real terms in our period. At the beginning of last year, we had increased the minimum wage by 50 percent, taking into account the conditions of those days, to a net 4 thousand 253 liras. Not only that, we abolished the income and stamp tax from the minimum wage. In July, with the new regulation, we increased the minimum wage to 5 thousand 500 liras.
– While we are doing all this, let’s not forget that we have the bag of this state on our back. Thus, we achieved an 80 percent increase in the minimum wage and a cumulative 95 percent increase during the year. We are following the process that protects the rights and balance in this critical period when we are starting to reap the fruits of our struggle to get our country out of the grip of interest, exchange rate and inflation. Those who don’t have a basket on their back throw them, just in case we give them this much. But we are very sensitive. By the end of the year, it is possible for our population to reach 86 million. We have to think about these.
– This month, we will witness a rapid decline in inflation rates. We are determined to reduce inflation to 30 percent in the middle of the year and 20 percent at the end of the year. We ask everyone from all walks of life to make their calculations according to this goal. If we come across an unexpected situation, we do not hesitate to make an interim adjustment as we did last year. As a management that has increased the income and welfare of our workers, we do not allow anyone’s rights to be lost. We exist for our nation.
– We are taking the steps regarding the minimum wage with this feeling. We have agreed on a net minimum wage of 8500 TL in 2023, hopefully. The minimum wage has a reflection on the employer as well as on us. An increase of 50 percent was achieved, and the annual average rate of increase was over 70 percent. I wish the new minimum wage to be beneficial for our country and nation, especially for employees and employers.
