THE poverty line for a single worker has been set at TL 1,999.14 by the Turkish Public Workers’ Labor Union (Kamu-Sen).
The figures are troublesome, as the average wage for a civil servant in Turkey is slightly over the TL 2,000 mark, while the minimum wage for a single worker without a family is TL 891.
Official figures from earlier this year indicated the average apartment rental price in Turkey was TL 602.
For a family of four, the poverty line was set at TL 4,065.27.
According to figures from the Turkish Statistics Institute (TurkStat), the average monthly food expenditures for a family of four was TL 949.89 as of September, meaning that for a civil servant earning the average sector wage of TL 2,185.30, food costs absorbed 43.47 percent of monthly wages.
When rent is factored in, the two expenditures accounted for 71.4 percent of a civil servant’s monthly wage, leaving only TL 625 remaining for such expenses as transportation, healthcare, communication, education and clothing.
According to Kamu-Sen, the figures reflect a major disparity between the rising costs of living and wage increases for civil servants.
In the past year, average family expenditures have risen TL 434, but the annual civil servant raise was only TL 123, meaning the average civil servant encountered more than TL 300 of extra monthly expenses.
A recent 9 percent rise in household electric and natural gas prices will create an additional impact, particularly while families heat their houses as the weather grows colder.
Rising food prices drove up inflation to levels nearly twice those expected by the government.
While forecasts predicted the annual rate would reach 5 percent, it nearly doubled that in August at 9.54 percent, before slipping to 8.86 percent in September.
Turkey’s Central Bank attributed the disappointing inflation rates to soaring food prices, which were the product of an unusually long period of drought that coincided with intermittent periods of frost.
The unfavorable weather conditions resulted in grim yields for producers of various fruits, vegetables, nuts and grains, and caused the prices of several staples to catapult by more than 100 percent.
The central bank said earlier this month that persistently high food prices are likely to continue to drive up inflation to undesirable levels in the coming months.
The poverty threshold for a family of four as of August had reached TL 4,199 per month and the hunger threshold rose to TL 1,328 per month, according to an announcement from the Confederation of Public Sector Trade Unions (KESK) in September.
Poverty threshold figures have climbed steadily over the past several years. TurkStat reported that the poverty line for a family of four has risen since 2008 as follows: TL 2,329 in February 2008, TL 2,464 in October 2009, TL 2,757 in September 2010, TL 3,063 in December 2011 and TL 3,470 by November 2013.