23.12.2025 21:00
The minimum wage for 2026 was announced by the Minister of Labor and Social Security, Vedat Işıkhan. The announced minimum wage has led to various interpretations in political and economic circles. Vice President Cevdet Yılmaz stated that in an environment where inflation has decreased and productivity has increased, policies will be implemented decisively to increase employment and ensure lasting social welfare. However, the leader of the BBP, Mustafa Destici, expressed that the announced figure does not reflect the value of hard work.
The minimum wage for 2026 announced by the Minister of Labor and Social Security, Vedat Işıkhan, has brought different evaluations in political and economic circles. While the government emphasizes that the announced figure is in line with macroeconomic targets, the opposition and some political party leaders argue that the wage falls short of workers' expectations.
Here are those comments:
Vice President Cevdet Yılmaz: In an environment where we aim to reduce the inflation rate to below twenty percent in 2026; with a monthly minimum wage rising to 28,075 TL with a 27% increase and state support rising from 1,000 TL to 1,270 TL, I wish good luck to employees and employers. We will continue to implement our policies aimed at reducing informality, increasing employment, and providing lasting social welfare with determination on a path where inflation is falling and productivity is rising.
BBP General Chairman Mustafa Destici: The minimum wage is not a charity, it is the sweat of labor. The announced figure is not the equivalent of hard work!
Leader of the New Welfare Party Fatih Erbakan: The minimum wage should be at least 45,000 TL in the face of this high cost of living. This figure is not a favor; it is the minimum condition for our workers to survive. While it is said that "there are no resources" for the laborers, billions transferred to the interest lobbies, the erased tax debts of privileged holdings, waste, and extravagance stand before us like a mountain. Those who are generous to the rentier make excuses of resource scarcity when it comes to laborers. Our esteemed nation should be at ease.
Future Party: The minimum wage of 28,075 TL is the figure with which the government has formalized poverty!
Good Party General Chairman Müsavat Dervişoğlu: A minimum wage below the hunger line condemns millions of our citizens to hunger. How will you explain this to whom?
CHP Deputy Chairman Gökan Zeybek: An increase that cannot even reach the hunger line is not a wage increase. Is the nation your subject of mockery? Did you calculate at those tables "what is the least that can be given"?
CHP Deputy Chairman Nurhayat Altaca Kayışoğlu: The 2026 minimum wage marathon, which millions have been waiting for with hope for months, has once again ended in disappointment. The figure deemed acceptable for workers is 28,075 TL with a 27% increase!
CHP Spokesperson Zeynel Emre: Announcing the 2026 minimum wage as 28,075 TL with a 27% increase is an open poverty arrangement for labor. This is the dark order of the Justice and Development Party. This figure does not align with inflation, rent, or grocery expenses. The minimum wage must be raised to a humane living standard. We want a humane wage, not a minimum one. The proposal of the Republican People's Party is clear: at least 39,000 TL.
CHP Deputy Chairman Ulaş Karasu: This is not an increase; it is the legitimization of poverty by the government. The fact that the minimum wage remains below the hunger line, which is already approaching 30,000 TL at the time of the announcement, mocks the minds and lives of millions of our citizens. The minimum wage has melted away before it even enters the pocket; it has fallen behind even the increase in January 2025.
CHP's presidential candidate and detained İBB President Ekrem İmamoğlu: The workers, laborers, and minimum wage earners of Turkey are not condemned to hunger! The right of the workers in this country is not a minimum wage below the hunger line! The minimum wage announced as 28,075 TL does not even come close to the realities of the nation, namely the severe cost of living. The announced minimum wage is not a necessity but a political choice. The mind that determines the minimum wage only with employers at a table without workers is the mind that says, "I am on the side of the rich, not the poor." The clear minimum wage proposal of the CHP is 39,000 TL. Hopefully, when the people's government comes to power, we will give our workers and minimum wage earners what they deserve, and with our new economic, industrial, and technological policies, we will also relieve employers. We will work, produce, earn, and share fairly!
CHP Group Deputy Chairman Gökhan Günaydın: The hunger line is 30,000 TL. 10 million citizens who have been living on 22,000 TL for a year will be condemned to 28,000 TL until the beginning of 2027. A minimum wage that is raised in line with accurately measured inflation, where the burden on small employers will be covered by the Treasury, is possible and appropriate for human dignity.
CHP Deputy Chairman Burhanettin Bulut: The minimum wage, which was 22,104 TL, has become 28,075 TL. The laborer, who is trying to survive below the hunger line and whose pot does not boil in the kitchen, has once again been condemned to a miserable wage. When it comes to laborers, there are no resources, only patience and gratitude. When it comes to themselves, there are palaces, extravagance, waste, and speeches like "there is no saving from prestige"! This is not governance; it is a tyrannical understanding that imposes poverty as fate! The laborer does not want charity; they want their sweat! To hell with your dirty, unjust order!