Surviving on YTL 527 a month
Güncelleme Tarihi:
by İzgi Güngör
Oluşturulma Tarihi: Aralık 27, 2008 00:00
ANKARA - According to Turkey’s Statistical Institute, a person requires YTL 720 to meet his basic needs. The minimum wage decided this week will be YTL 527 per month for 2009. The country’s 10 million minimum wage earners are used to surviving on very little. Despite the global financial crisis, they have YTL 24 extra to cope with the huge price increases
After wrenching debate on Turkey’s minimum wage, with inflation on the minds of some, the danger of exacerbating the unregistered economy on the minds of others and a growing humanitarian crisis occupying the thoughts of yet others, Turkey finally settled on a figure this week: YTL 527 per month.
In a mid-economic crisis deal that bent the will of many unions, the government has decided a worker over the age of 16 can survive with a YTL 24 raise. In 2008, minimum wage per month was YTL 503. In 2009, it will be YTL 527 (about $350).
This story of one family living on minimum wage in Ankara is an example of the difficult situation. The financial pressure hits the poor before the bell rings, their minimum wage spent on housing, utilities and school before they can even think of food, clothes, transport or hygiene.
"Sometimes I think of killing myself but I have children. I am undergoing a deep depression and I can’t sleep at night. We have a lot of debt," said Nermin Gencer, a spouse of a minimum-wage worker with three children, told the Turkish Daily News & Economic Review.
According to Turkey’s Statistical Institute, or TUİK, a person requires YTL 720 to meet his basic needs. Also, TUİK’s 2007 data says a family of four needs YTL 619 for food. Furthermore, according to December 2008 data from the Confederation of Turkish Labor Unions, or Türk-İş, a family of four needs at least YTL 2,409 for their expenses.
"My children sometimes go to bed without eating. Sometimes their teachers give them food at school. We have to live on with what my husband earns as a worker in a dried fruit shop," said Gencer, whose family lives in the basement of one of the shanty houses in Ankara’s old and neglected Akdere district. Her husband was at work and her children at school when the Daily News met with her in her home.
Wage doesn’t meet basic needs
Nothing provides a clearer picture of the country’s 10 million minimum-wage workers and a better source for social analyses of the municipal free aid packages than Gencer’s small home and what she said about their frustrated life. The regular free aid packages of food and coal from the municipality, given three times each month, are the basic means of their existence as the husband’s minimum wage of YTL 500, soon to be YTL 527, is far from meeting necessary expenses.
A small stove warms the house and its two small rooms and kitchen. The family pays YTL 200 for rent and YTL 30 for water and electricity each month. The annual school contribution of YTL 150 for three children is an additional burden. The rest of the wage doesn’t meet the expenses of basic needs such as the food, clothing, transport and cleaning supplies for the house, Gencer said.
This financial pressure led her husband to alcoholism and her to work for a cleaning service. Her husband used violence against her and her three children, aged 8, 10 and 12. They all rely on the social security of the husband.
"But the doctor advised me to quit working because I caught asthma and my body can’t bear doing physical work everyday. My children, too, are depressed and all have adopted aggressive behavior. One is attending a rehabilitation center and we had to change school for another for this reason," Gencer said. "How can they keep their mental well-being under such financial pressure and circumstances?"
Their everyday menu is simply based on eggs, soup and macaroni. Meat, chicken and vegetable are rare visitors to their refrigerator, which featured only the remaining of the municipal aid including a thin layer of jam, a cup of sugar, flour and sauce.
"I know that my children should consume well-balanced foods for their mental and physical development, but we can’t afford it. I don’t know how we can overcome this fate. I see no hope," she said.
Rich and poor not in the same boat
Everyday financial problems have doubled in the recent global economic turmoil, humbling all. But Turkey is the country of contradictions. Twenty percent of the Turkish population receives only the 6 percent of the national income while the richest 20 percent of the population takes in 44 percent of the income, representing a sharp inequality in income share. The privileged few who get the creamy layer of this income, too, are not immune to the rising financial pressure as two significant Turkish businessmen committed suicide this week because of their debts.
Some, however, have been climbing the property ladder and they have different problems these days. They seek free space for their boats in marinas. A marina director in Marmaris last week said the marina’s biggest problem was space scarcity. Meanwhile, a big real estate investor in Istanbul announced they have doubled sales of luxury homes.
In a mid-economic crisis deal that bent the will of many unions, the government has decided a worker over the age of 16 can survive with a YTL 24 raise. In 2008, minimum wage per month was YTL 503. In 2009, it will be YTL 527 (about $350).
This story of one family living on minimum wage in Ankara is an example of the difficult situation. The financial pressure hits the poor before the bell rings, their minimum wage spent on housing, utilities and school before they can even think of food, clothes, transport or hygiene.
"Sometimes I think of killing myself but I have children. I am undergoing a deep depression and I can’t sleep at night. We have a lot of debt," said Nermin Gencer, a spouse of a minimum-wage worker with three children, told the Turkish Daily News & Economic Review.
According to Turkey’s Statistical Institute, or TUİK, a person requires YTL 720 to meet his basic needs. Also, TUİK’s 2007 data says a family of four needs YTL 619 for food. Furthermore, according to December 2008 data from the Confederation of Turkish Labor Unions, or Türk-İş, a family of four needs at least YTL 2,409 for their expenses.
"My children sometimes go to bed without eating. Sometimes their teachers give them food at school. We have to live on with what my husband earns as a worker in a dried fruit shop," said Gencer, whose family lives in the basement of one of the shanty houses in Ankara’s old and neglected Akdere district. Her husband was at work and her children at school when the Daily News met with her in her home.
Wage doesn’t meet basic needs
Nothing provides a clearer picture of the country’s 10 million minimum-wage workers and a better source for social analyses of the municipal free aid packages than Gencer’s small home and what she said about their frustrated life. The regular free aid packages of food and coal from the municipality, given three times each month, are the basic means of their existence as the husband’s minimum wage of YTL 500, soon to be YTL 527, is far from meeting necessary expenses.
A small stove warms the house and its two small rooms and kitchen. The family pays YTL 200 for rent and YTL 30 for water and electricity each month. The annual school contribution of YTL 150 for three children is an additional burden. The rest of the wage doesn’t meet the expenses of basic needs such as the food, clothing, transport and cleaning supplies for the house, Gencer said.
This financial pressure led her husband to alcoholism and her to work for a cleaning service. Her husband used violence against her and her three children, aged 8, 10 and 12. They all rely on the social security of the husband.
"But the doctor advised me to quit working because I caught asthma and my body can’t bear doing physical work everyday. My children, too, are depressed and all have adopted aggressive behavior. One is attending a rehabilitation center and we had to change school for another for this reason," Gencer said. "How can they keep their mental well-being under such financial pressure and circumstances?"
Their everyday menu is simply based on eggs, soup and macaroni. Meat, chicken and vegetable are rare visitors to their refrigerator, which featured only the remaining of the municipal aid including a thin layer of jam, a cup of sugar, flour and sauce.
"I know that my children should consume well-balanced foods for their mental and physical development, but we can’t afford it. I don’t know how we can overcome this fate. I see no hope," she said.
Rich and poor not in the same boat
Everyday financial problems have doubled in the recent global economic turmoil, humbling all. But Turkey is the country of contradictions. Twenty percent of the Turkish population receives only the 6 percent of the national income while the richest 20 percent of the population takes in 44 percent of the income, representing a sharp inequality in income share. The privileged few who get the creamy layer of this income, too, are not immune to the rising financial pressure as two significant Turkish businessmen committed suicide this week because of their debts.
Some, however, have been climbing the property ladder and they have different problems these days. They seek free space for their boats in marinas. A marina director in Marmaris last week said the marina’s biggest problem was space scarcity. Meanwhile, a big real estate investor in Istanbul announced they have doubled sales of luxury homes.