Abstract

The Anker Living Wage Reference Value for 2021 for urban Turkey is TRY 4,954 per month. This is the average living wage over 2021 required by an urban worker to be able to afford a basic but decent living standard for himself or herself and his/her family in a typical urban area of Turkey. It is important to note that the living wage would be higher than this at the end of 2021 for two reasons. First: Turkey has a high inflation rate, which spiked further in the second half of 2021 to an annual rate of around 20% in October, according to TURKSTAT (and said to be even higher according to others), and the recent large depreciation of the lira is likely to further exacerbate inflation. And second: payroll deductions and income tax due on the living wage started increasing from June. In addition, it is also important to keep in mind that in such a large and diverse country like Turkey, living costs and living wages are necessarily higher than average in expensive and developed cities such as Istanbul, Izmir and Ankara.

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