Minimum wage hikes exceed inflation, says Mehmet Şimşek

ISTANBUL

The increases in the minimum have surpassed the annual inflation rates, according to Finance Minister Mehmet Şimşek.

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In 2013, the annual inflation was 64.8 percent, whereas the minimum wage was hiked by 107.3 percent in that year, Şimşek wrote on X.

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The increase in the minimum wage was 49.1 percent in 2024, when the inflation is expected to end the year at around 45 percent, the minister said.

“While the average annual [economic] growth in the 2003-2024 period was 5.3 percent, the real increase in the minimum wage was 5.6 percent,” Şimşek noted.

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

“For 2025, the minimum wage is over $620 dollars at the current exchange rate. The dollar equivalent of the minimum wage has risen 5.6 times compared to the 2002 level and the increase was 3.2 times when adjusted for U.S. inflation,” Şimşek said.

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He also noted that the share of labor payments in gross value added reached 37.6 percent in the third quarter of 2024, the highest value since 1998 when the data first started being tracked.

The current minimum wage in Türkiye is higher than in developing countries such as Romania, Bulgaria, Mexico, China, Brazil, South Africa, Indonesia, Russia, Egypt and India, according to Şimşek.

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“Between 2005 and 2024, we increased employment by 13.7 million people, which means we added over 680 thousand jobs on average annually,” Şimşek also said.

“Since June 2023, when we started implementing our program, the increase in employment has reached 1.4 million,” he added.