I listened to a few discussions about the minimum wage today. There is an expectation between 7800-8500 tl, which corresponds to somewhere between 420-460 dollars at the current exchange rate. This means that on January 1, 2016, the highest minimum wage level in the history of the republic in dollar terms, 442 dollars, will be reached again.
I know that people on low incomes need this increase and this is not the aspect of the problem I want to discuss.
The impact of such a large increase on inflation could also be large. Even if additional measures are taken to ensure that it does not have a big impact on production costs, it will certainly have an impact on the employment momentum. Moreover, at the same time, there is also an EYT regulation and millions of people are getting early retirement.
Employees who somehow started their insurance records 25 years ago will be able to retire. These people will continue to work in different fields with small deductions and will have double earnings. In the new year, unskilled workers or those who take a low-level job with no experience will receive up to double their salary with minimum living allowances.
But the purchasing power of, for example, an engineer with 10 years of work experience will erode. Most of the employees with 10-20 years of experience, who make up the backbone of the labor force, are in the private sector and the increases they will receive will not be in line with the minimum wage increase this year, as they were last year. The middle-income group earning salaries in TL is gradually disappearing. This is a very dangerous situation for an economy.
Everyone is talking about the minimum wage and those who threaten votes for early retirement, but unfortunately, no party can voice the economic dilemma faced by the main element of our labor force.