Minimum Wage Estimations Altered Due to Public Worker Wage Hike – Current Headlines
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has announced that the lowest civil servant salary will be raised to 22,000 Turkish liras, to not fall below the lowest public worker salary. This decision will reduce the wage gap between the different levels of government officials. However, only the lowest wage earners will benefit from this raise, leaving others with little change.
Sworn Financial Advisor Ahmet Kurtuluş warned that the increase in public worker salaries by 45% will create expectations of a rise for the rest of the low-paid workers, including civil servants and pension recipients. As such, he predicts that the minimum wage will be around 11,000 Turkish liras net in July, taking into account inflation and exchange rates. If there is a rise in inflation and exchange rates, the minimum wage could increase to 12,500 Turkish liras.
It is expected that the raise in salary for the lowest civil servants will also have an impact on civil servant retirees, with the exception of SSK and Bagkur retirees. Kurtuluş believes that SSK and Bağkur retirees will receive a raise of 30%, while civil servant retirees will receive the exact same increase as their working counterparts.
Overall, the decision to increase the lowest civil servant salary is a positive step to reduce the wage gap within the public sector, but it remains to be seen how it will impact other government officials and pension recipients.
