Gap between starvation line and minimum wage has almost completely closed in Turkey

* Photo: Gülsem Adam / AA

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The Confederation of Turkish Trade Unions (Türk-İş) has shared the January results of its "Starvation and Poverty Line Survey", which it regularly carries out to shed light on the conditions in which citizens make ends meet.

The survey has shown that the gap between the minimum wage and the starvation line has almost completely disappeared in January 2022.

According to the Türk-İş survey, the amount of minimum monthly food expenditure to be made by a family of four for a healthy, balanced and adequate diet (starvation line) is 4,249 Turkish Lira (TRY). The current minimum wage in the country stands at 4,253 TRY.

The expenditures to be made by a family of four for food, clothing, housing (rent, electricity, water and fuel), transportation, education, healthcare, etc. (poverty line) amount to 13,843 TRY, according to Türk-İş.

The findings of the Confederation has also shown that the "cost of living" of a single employee has increased to 5,587 TRY.

In December 2021, the Türk-İş data indicated that the starvation line stood at 4,013 TRY in Turkey while the poverty line stood at 13,072 TRY and the "cost of living" of a single worker stood at 4,926 TRY.

Top issue on public agenda: Price hikes

In its January 2022 report, the Confederation has underlined that "even though there was a sharp fall in foreign exchange rates following the introduction of the foreign exchange-protected Turkish lira deposit scheme in December, the lira has started losing value again."

Noting that there was a general increase in food prices in December, the Türk-İş has indicated that in the following period, there has been a drop in the prices of some products while there has been no change in some.

Referring to "the almost 25-percent increase in food prices in the last month following the record high exchange rates", the Confederation of Turkish Trade Unions has underlined that "the appreciation of the Turkish lira has almost no positive effect on markets and bazaars."

"The most important issue on the public agenda was once again the successive increases in prices," the Türk-İş has noted, adding:

"As a result of the increases in the prices of fuel oil, electricity, natural gas and public transport, it has become all the more difficult for workers and their families, whose biggest and usually the only source of income is the minimum wage, to make ends meet with the minimum wage."

The Confederation has emphasized that while the minimum food expenditures of a family of four in the capital city of Ankara increased by 3.71 percent in January when compared to the previous month, the price increase in the last 12 months is 59.67 percent. As underlined by the Türk-İş, even the price of a liter of milk has increased to 12 TRY in this period.

Moreover, the minimum food expenditure of a male adult has increased to 1,290 lira, that of a woman 998 lira, that of a child at the ages of 15-19 to 1,273 lira and that of a child at the ages of 4-6 to 686 lira. (HA/SD)