Ebru YİĞİT
Kocaeli

Metal factory worker Hatice is 33 years old and married. Evaluating the increase to the minimum wage, she said: “The increase to the minimum wage will not cover any of our expenses. Even before the increase, food, electricity, water, gas, and many other expenses had started to hike up.

“Although the new minimum wage is 2, 825 TL (312 Euros per month), they give it to us with a spoon and take it back with a ladle.

“They already do this every year while we wait with hope for a sufficient rise. The increased wage slips away before the month is even up.

“In other words, it seems to me that the minimum wage does not actually change at all. Because the expenses are double what the increase in wages are. So it seems to me that only the numbers are changing while our situation always stays the same.”

Working as a cleaner at a metal factory in Kartepe, Sevgi said: “I was happy when I heard about the increase to the minimum wage. I was thinking that they wouldn’t even offer us that much.

“Then I sat down and did the maths. Even with the increase, I have to work overtime to afford sunflower oil. Because every other expense is also increasing, we can only afford to eat if we work overtime into the night”.

UNUSED GAS BILLS COST 225 LIRA

As a floor attendant at a hotel, Sennur said that the minimum wage increase is not enough to satisfy anyone.

She said: “When the new minimum wage was announced, everyone was happy at first. But then - day by day - the cost of everything else began to hike and we realised that they will be taking back the increase from us in this way.

“I paid a 225 lira (25 Euros) gas bill even though I never even used it. Half of my wage has already disappeared. I was thinking about what I can do with the remaining income, but yet again I don’t have anything to spare for myself.”

IMPOSSIBLE TO MAKE ENDS MEET

Evin, who also works at a metal factory, said that those who set the minimum wage are completely oblivious to what it is like to live on minimum wage.

She said: “Even when the new minimum wage was determined, it was not set out based on the needs of the people who are on the poverty line. While we are struggling with hunger, those who decide what we deserve lead a life of pleasure.

“This is why the increase to the minimum wage does not matter. It is already impossible to make ends meet with the money we receive.”

“WE CANNOT CHANGE ANYTHING BY PUTTING UP WITH EVERYTHING”

Nurgül does not think that the increase to minimum wage is insufficient. “Actually, I did not even think they would increase it by this much,” she said.

“This is because they have always been stingy about the minimum wage. Well, they behaved stingy in this instance too, but I was expecting that they would give us even less.

“As for subsistence, the minimum wage is never a living wage. I can understand the Labour Minister’s claim that ‘poverty will end’, because they do not live on this salary - they do not understand.

“Five litres of cooking oil costs more than 70 Liras. Can poverty end under these conditions? Of course not, but we must at the very least react against upcoming hikes to living costs, because we cannot change anything by putting up with everything.” (EVRENSEL DAILY)