This stark reality was detailed in an analysis by journalist İbrahim Ekinci for the news outlet Kısa Dalga. Ekinci highlights a metaphor from Professor Dr. Hakan Kara to describe the situation: citizens are not merely being "crushed" by inflation, but rather "sawn apart as if by a sawtooth." This analogy captures the sharp, repetitive nature of the hardship, where wages are periodically raised just enough to meet subsistence levels, only to be sliced down again by rising costs in a relentless up-and-down pattern of economic distress.
The latest data from the Confederation of Turkish Trade Unions (TÜRK-İŞ) for September 2025 starkly illustrates this trend. The study calculated the "hunger line"—the minimum food expenditure for a family of four to have a healthy and balanced diet—at 27,970 Turkish Lira. Meanwhile, the "poverty line," which includes essential non-food expenses such as housing, transportation, and education, has risen to 91,109 Lira. At the beginning of 2025, the national minimum wage was equivalent to 99.88% of the hunger line. By September, its purchasing power had plummeted, covering only 79.02% of that same basic food basket.
This is not a new phenomenon but a deeply entrenched pattern. In 2024, the minimum wage began the year at a healthier 112.98% of the hunger line but ended at just 80.64%. The preceding years show a similar decline: from 95.97% to 79.01% in 2023, and a particularly severe drop from 100.08% to a devastating 67.65% in 2022. Each year, the New Year wage adjustment offers a fleeting promise of stability that is quickly broken.
With an estimated 8 million people—roughly 40% of the workforce—earning minimum wage or less, the scale of the issue is immense. Analysts like Ekinci argue that the national conversation itself is flawed, calling it a "disgrace" that the benchmark for survival is the hunger line rather than the poverty line. For a family of four with only one minimum-wage earner, even avoiding hunger is a struggle, while escaping poverty is a statistical impossibility. This grim reality on the ground stands in stark contrast to official narratives of a nation on the cusp of transitioning to a high-income economy.
Photo: Gemini AI