Erdoğan: No mid-year raise for minimum wage
With the announcement of June inflation figures by the Turkish Statistical Institute (TÜİK), the raises for retirees and civil servants have been determined. However, millions of minimum wage workers were left disappointed.
Public officials and retired civil servants received a 19.31% increase in their salaries and wages, while SSK and Bağ-Kur retirees saw a 24.73% increase in their pensions.
While there have been increases in the salaries of civil servants and retirees, one of the main topics on the agenda has been the interim raise for the minimum wage.
BELOW THE POVERTY LINE
Millions of minimum wage workers earn below the poverty line. According to a report by Türk-İş, the hunger threshold in June was 18,979 TL.
The total income needed for a household to cover food and all other basic expenses (poverty line) was 61,820 TL.
As minimum wage earners continue to hope for a raise in July, President and AKP Chairman Recep Tayyip Erdoğan put an end to the discussions on interim raises.
Responding to questions from journalists on the plane returning from his visit to Kazakhstan, Erdoğan addressed the issue of raises that millions of minimum wage workers are curious about.
"OUR BIGGEST BENEFIT TO MINIMUM WAGE WORKERS..."
When asked, "Can a new step in monetary policy be taken based on the inflation figures for July and August?" Erdoğan replied, "Our biggest problem is the high cost of living. The most unfair tax is inflation. Therefore, the greatest benefit we can provide to our low-income, minimum wage, and retired citizens is to permanently reduce inflation to single digits without resorting to populism. Our aim is to permanently improve our citizens' standard of living."
"OUR BIGGEST PROBLEM IS THE HIGH COST OF LIVING"
Emphasizing that the economic program is working, Erdoğan said, "The decline in inflation has just begun. It will continue to accelerate. We believe in this. These goals may seem ambitious at first, but we sincerely believe that we will achieve them. Our program is working. Initially, they said there was no program, then they said this program wouldn't work, then they said money is coming, but it's hot money. They constantly focus on a flaw or a mistake. Of course, we have problems, but there is a strong political will to solve them. Our biggest problem is the high cost of living. The most unfair tax is inflation."
CLOSED THE DOORS
Shutting down the possibility of a raise for the minimum wage, Erdoğan stated, "Therefore, the greatest benefit we can provide to our low-income, minimum wage, and retired citizens is to permanently reduce inflation to single digits without resorting to populism. Our aim is to permanently improve our citizens' standard of living. Hopefully, as we enter the last quarter, we will have resolved this issue with the permission of God."
