The Centre for Research on the Class of the United Metalworkers’ Union of Turkey (BİSAM) issued their research on the purchasing power in May 2018. The purchasing power of the minimum-wager seems to drop drastically for many items, especially the staple food products, in one year. The research was based on the data from the Turkish Statistical Institute (TÜİK) and the Ministry of Labour and Social Security.
Onion has one of the highest rates in the loss of the minimum-wage minimum wage earner purchase power with a decrease of 27.8, whereas cucumber has a rate of 21.4.
It has become even harder for the minimum-wage earner to have a healthy diet, since they can now purchase %5 fewer eggs, 6.1% less lamb, 8% less milk, 10% less cheese, and 15.3% less butter than they could in the same month last year.
Onion has had a 58.1% mark-up in one year, while the price of cucumber has increased 45.2%, butter 34.8%, milk 23.9%, lamb 21.5%, egg 20.6%, cheese 26.6%, fish 15.4, yoghurt 19.6%. The increase in the minimum wage in the same period was 14.2%.
The loss in the purchasing power of the minimum-wage earner is not limited to food products. A minimum-wager has to work much more for household goods this year.
They had to work for 247 hours to buy a refrigerator in May 2017, and it has increased to 266 hours in May 2018. To buy a bedroom suite, a minimum-wage earner had to work for 914 hours a year, and it has risen to 1085 hours in 2018. In a nutshell, minimum-wage earner has to work for 20 hours more for a fridge, and 171 hours more for a bedroom suite in 2018 compared to the last year.
