Making ends meet a challenge for minimum wage earners

 He and his wife, Sevil Nas, who cleans houses to contribute to the family budget, do not have any kids because they are not sure if they would be able to afford to take care of a child. They go to their hometown once a year to stock up on food supplies such as legumes that can be stored for a long time for the winter, so they don’t have to worry about spending extra cash on food purchases at a time when they have to pay for heating bills.

    Nas is a minimum wage earner. He makes close to TL 500 ($331) a month, which the family uses to cover the rent for their apartment in Soğanlı (TL 350, $232), utilities (from TL 50 [$33] to as high as TL 200 [$133] in winter). Nas says most of the time, his salary is completely spent on housing and bills at the beginning of the month. His wife makes between TL 500 and 550 cleaning houses in a good month.

On average, they must live on TL 600 ($396) for the rest of the month. That is about TL 500 to spend on food, clothing, health expenses -- Sevil Nas does not have insurance since she is not officially employed -- phone bills, transportation and every other need. Sevil Nas would like to have children, but “how can we possibly take care of a child? I don’t think we can afford one,” says her husband. This actually places the couple among the most financially comfortable of Turkey’s minimum wage workers, who number nearly 4 million.

Minimum wage commission

The minimum wage is really the bare minimum survivable, and those who eke out a living on it are not hopeful that the rate will improve. A commission to set a new national minimum wage rate had its second meeting on Thursday at the Labor Ministry. Bureaucrats from the ministry and representatives of employer unions as well as bureaucrats from the national statistics and planning departments attend the commission’s meetings. The Confederation of Turkish Labor Unions (Türk-İş), which represents the workers in the talks, has been boycotting the meetings since Türk-İş Educational General Secretary Nihat Yurdakul was not allowed to explain the confederation’s expectations at the first meeting. Yurdakul and others walked out of the meeting, announcing that they would not join the meetings unless the ministry took a step to ease tension. This has not happened. The commission will meet again in late December, when it is expected to announce the new rate. However, nobody expects a raise above TL 25 ($17). “I make TL 600. I have two kids. We rent our house. What am I supposed to do, rob a bank?” says Turgut Koca (28), who works as a security guard on a minimum wage for a private security company that protects a gated housing complex in Halkalı. “What are we supposed to do with this money? Pay the rent? Send the kids to school? Just what are we supposed to do?” he asks in frustration.

In İstanbul entire families depend on a minimum wage paycheck. Some of these people have more than two children, some have higher rents to pay, and some have family members with ailments that call for continuous purchases of certain drugs and various other monthly expenses.

Poverty line and the wage

The gross minimum wage is currently TL 693 ($459) before taxes for workers over 16. This means that the net minimum wage for such employees is TL 496 ($328). For workers younger than 16, the wage is set at TL 589 ($391) gross, TL 422 ($280) in net earnings. The total cost of a minimum wage worker over 16 to his or her employer is TL 841.99 ($557); this figure is TL 754 ($497) for workers younger than 16.

According to a survey from public servants’ union Memur-Sen, the hunger line as of November was TL 873 ($580) for a four-member household, while the poverty line was TL 2,344 ($1,552). In other words, even if everyone in a four-person family was a minimum wage earner, they would still remain below the poverty line.

The Minimum Wage Commission will meet on Dec. 31, the last day of the year. Unions want higher wages, but some propose cheaper services. The Revolutionary Health Union (Dev Sağlık-İş) organized a small protest on Thursday. Bekir Çivi, a representative of the group, accused the government and employers of viewing Turkey as a market for cheap labor. He demanded that utilities, including electric power, water and natural gas, be given free of charge to minimum wage earners. A similar demand came from Mersin. A group from the Mersin Labor and Democracy Platform came together on Thursday in front of the city’s Social Security Institution (SGK) directorate, according to regional news Web site medya73.com. The group demanded free education, health, transportation and housing services from the state. A spokesperson for the group said the minimum wage was not only a concern of minimum wage earners, but of the entire society.