A family of four in Turkey now needs 91,109 lira ($2,192) a month to cover basic expenses such as food, housing, transportation, education and healthcare, more than four times the official minimum wage, according to data released by the Confederation of Turkish Trade Unions (TÜRK-İŞ), Turkish Minute reported.
The confederation said the hunger threshold, the minimum monthly food cost for a family to maintain a healthy and balanced diet, rose to 27,970 lira ($673) in September, exceeding the minimum wage for the first time by 21 percent.
Financial analyst İris Cibre noted on X that the gap between the hunger threshold and the minimum wage has never been this wide. “How many families in this country have 90,000 lira coming into their home? Even if they raise wages by 20 percent at the end of the year, they cannot make up the losses of 2025,” she wrote, adding that the 3.17 percent monthly increase in food prices was a troubling leading indicator.
TÜRK-İŞ calculated the monthly cost of living for a single worker at 36,305 lira ($873), leaving a 14,201 lira ($342) shortfall compared to the minimum wage of 22,104 lira ($531).
The confederation also reported that annual “kitchen inflation” — the increase in food prices — reached 41.05 percent, with prices rising 32.67 percent in the first nine months of 2025 alone.
Sharp increases in meat, poultry, egg, lentil and oil prices were the main drivers of rising food costs, while vegetable prices also climbed overall. Potatoes were a rare exception, dropping 15 percent in September.
Over the past several years Turkey has been suffering from backsliding in its economy, with high inflation and unemployment as well as a poor human rights record. President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is criticized for mishandling the economy, emptying the state’s coffers and establishing one-man rule in the country, where dissent is suppressed and opponents are jailed on politically motivated charges.
