IYI Party Development Policies Head Prof. Dr. Hope Özlale, at a press conference at Headquarters, assessing developments in the country's economy, he said the number of unemployed exceeded the number of registered workers in Turkey.
Evaluating the labor force statistics announced and the inflation figures announced last week, Özlale said in her statement: “The announced statistics once again revealed that the COVID-19 epidemic affected the low-income and insecure workers the most. The insistence of the ruling party on a "growth model that does not provide employment" was once again reflected in the labor force statistics announced yesterday by TURKSTAT. Currently, only 83 million of the 27.7 million population, ie less than one third of our population, are working. Even more thought-provoking, of these 27.7 million, 18.8 million are unregistered work. In other words, only 22.6 percent of our country's population is registered. This is a table unworthy of Turkey. When our citizens who have lost hope of finding a job but are not considered unemployed are added to the unemployment figures announced by TURKSTAT, the unemployment rate becomes 22.9%. In summary, the number of our unemployed citizens currently in Turkey surpassed the number of registered employees.
As if this were not enough, the monetary and credit policy implemented by the previous Minister of Treasury and Finance and the fiscal policy, which did not leave us room at the same time, say that it will be much more difficult in the coming period. The citizen and employer did not feel any 6.7 percent growth at all. What citizens now feel is the surplus of precarious workers, a life model that cannot create employment and the increasing cost of living. Turkey is one of the five countries with the highest inflation among developing countries today. This in no way fits a sustainable development model. It is the opposite of an economic model that creates jobs, creates jobs and provides price stability that we aim for.
WE SUGGEST THE MINIMUM WAGE TO INCREASE THE EMPLOYER WITHOUT INCREASING THE COST.
The discussions on the minimum wage that affect all our employees continue in such a period. As IYI Party, 10 days ago, our Esteemed Chairman announced our minimum wage proposal from the Chair of the Assembly. I also want to repeat here. While net 3,000 TL is received by our citizens working with the minimum wage, the cost to the employer continues to be 3,458 TL. Our suggestion is very simple, we propose to increase the minimum wage without increasing the cost to the employer.
We do not want to limit this minimum wage proposal to minimum wage earners. We say that employees with earnings above the minimum wage should not pay the SGK premium and income tax arising from the minimum wage. In other words, let's put 675 TL per month in the pockets of all employees, but not get this money from the employer. The cost of our minimum wage proposal for the budget is approximately 71 billion TL. This is one tenth of last year's credit expansion. We say that we can accelerate the economy by increasing the permanent income of our employees by putting 675 TL in the pockets of all employees with only one tenth of this money. What will happen when the economy gains momentum, its consumption will increase by at least 100 billion TL. The contribution of this increase to the national income will be close to 400 billion TL. We will create 1 million 552 thousand new jobs and 1 million 164 thousand of this will be unregistered employment. In other words, this system will provide social security and retirement rights to more than 1 million citizens working without security. The cost of this for the whole budget is 71 billion TL. The state will have 71 billion TL out of pocket, and this will contribute 400 billion TL to the economy. However, small family businesses will also win. Businesses that employ family members without security will increase formal employment and thus we will give a new momentum to our economy.
BUDGET IS A FIELD TO PRIORITIZE THE PEOPLE'S NEEDS
In the upcoming period, there is no room for monetary and fiscal policy to move. We are talking about a Central Bank that has to constantly raise the interest rates and at the same time, a budget that has to allocate 180 TL for the expenditure of the interest on the debt. If 71 billion TL comes out of our state's pocket in such a period, it will affect the permanent earnings of all citizens at the end of today and will help our more egalitarian, more inclusive, low-income citizens to breathe a growth. The budget is an area to prioritize the needs of the people. Our expectation from the ruling party, at least in the current period, is to implement a minimum wage regulation that will understand the needs of the people and to reflect its low cost in the budget.
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