MÜSİAD President Mahmut Asmalı issued a written statement regarding the new minimum wage announced by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

MÜSİAD President Asmalı stated the following in his statement:

As MÜSİAD, Turkey's most widespread and grassroots civil society organization, we advocate that not a single employee's hard work and effort should be wasted, not only during minimum wage determination processes or periods of high inflation, but under all circumstances. In this context, we hope that the new minimum wage for 2023 will be beneficial for all economic actors, especially our employees and employers.

We anticipate that inflation, which entered a period of easing in November due to the base effect and the stringent measures taken by the economic administration, will decline to much more reasonable levels by 2023. Thus, 2023 will not be a period in which our employees' purchasing power weakens in the face of inflation; Under the leadership of our President, Mr. Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, this will be a year in which we will be freed from the burden of high interest rates in the short term and gradually move closer to our inflation target in the medium and long term.

Furthermore, we certainly hope that support and incentives will be increased to alleviate the additional burden that wage increases will impose on employers. Incentives and support provided to employers are critical for our employers, who will be burdened by these wage increases.

Furthermore, we reiterate that providing additional positive privileges for minimum wage workers in the industrial sector would be a significant step toward increasing our employment and production capacity in manufacturing. We also reiterate that the idea of ​​implementing a regional minimum wage should be strongly considered as an alternative to the current national minimum wage, which falls short of reflecting regional disparities.