Minimum Salary Level Increased

The situation

Effective January 1, 2020, the minimum monthly wage in Turkey has increased to TRY 2,943, up 15 percent from 2019. Salaries for foreign workers, which are linked to the minimum wage, are affected as follows:

Job type	Prior salary requirement	New salary requirement
High-level managers, engineers, pilots and architects	TRY 16,629.60	TRY 19,129.50 (6.5 times minimum wage)
Mid-level branch or department managers, mid-level software engineers	TRY 10,233.60	TRY 11,772 (four times minimum wage)
Specialists, technicians, information technology consultants, financial analysts and teachers	TRY 7,675.20	TRY 8,829 (three times minimum wage)
General staff, e.g. sales officers and low-level marketing officers	TRY 3,837.60	TRY 4,414.50 (1.5 times minimum wage)

The exchange rate at the time of publication of this alert is 1 TRY to 0.17 USD.

A closer look

• Existing employees. Employers of foreign nationals currently under a work permit need not increase foreign nationals’ salaries.
• Initial and renewal applications. Employers of foreign nationals seeking to obtain or renew a work permit on or after January 1, 2020 must increase foreign nationals’ salaries to comply with the new rule. Immigration applications that do not meet the minimum salary will be refused.
• Pending applications. Employers of foreign nationals with pending work permit applications as of January 1, 2020 need not increase foreign nationals’ salaries to comply with the new rule.

 

Reminders on other requirements

• Benefits and allowances. As before, benefits and allowances may not be included in the minimum salary calculation.
• Safe margin. As before, Fragomen recommends slightly rounding the salary up, to maintain a safe margin above the threshold.
• Permit duration. As before, employers are required to guarantee the salary throughout the validity of the work permit.

 

Background

Turkey increased salary thresholds by 14.2 percent for 2018 and by 26 percent for 2019. The typically high increases reflect a high local currency inflation rate.

 

Looking ahead

Many European countries published updated salary thresholds and quota figures for 2020. Fragomen expects countries to continue publishing such updates in the next few weeks.

Fragomen worked closely with the Bener Law Office in Istanbul to prepare this alert. This alert is for informational purposes only. If you have any questions, please contact the global immigration professional with whom you work at Fragomen or send an email to [email protected].