Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced Tuesday a 45% wage hike for 700,000 public workers ahead of the May 14 elections.
“We are increasing wages by 45%, including the welfare share. With this protocol, we determine the framework of the wages that approximately 700,000 of our brothers will receive in the 2023-2024 period,” Erdogan said at a signing ceremony for the Public Collective Labor Agreement.
The minimum monthly wage for public workers will be 15,000 Turkish liras ($768.72), he said.
The Turkish president further detailed additional benefits for public workers.
The government will introduce a 4-6% premium payment to workers who do not have work premium payments and will add 10% to the bare wages of the veterans, victims of terrorism and martyrs, he explained.
The government will raise overtime wages by 70% and hike the wages of night workers by 8%, Erdogan said.
“We update the figures of clothing and food aids and increase them at the rate of the wage hike. We are also making increases in additional payments, non-payment bonuses,” he said.
The president added that the government had planned a rise in the minimum wages and salaries for civil servants and pensioners in July based on the gap between inflation and the welfare share.
Erdogan, who was elected Turkish president in 2014, will seek another term at the presidential and parliamentary elections on May 14.
He holds a neck-to-neck election campaign against opposition leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu, who has promised better living quality and social standards for millions of households battered by runaway inflation.
Commodity prices have increased dramatically amid rampant inflation in Türkiye in recent years.
The annual consumer price index (CPI) rose for several months in a row to hit 85.5% in October last year, bringing about a sharp decline in Turkish households’ purchasing power. The rate has slowed since then and was recorded at 43.68% in April.
