North Cyprus government raised minimum wage by 26%

The government of North Cyprus has raised the current minimum wage by 26% following rise in the cost of living in the country.

According to the Minister of Labour and Social Security, Hamza Ersan Saner, the minimum wage was raised by 155 Turkish Lira in addition to the increased minimum wage by 104TL in June 2016, followed by a second 186TL raise in February 2017 bringing the increase to a total of 445TL in the last year.

The minister in a written statement said the UBP-DP coalition government had introduced a 26% raise to the minimum wage in the past year bringing the current wage to 2,175TL.

According to him, the decision to raise the minimum wage to 2,175TL was taken with a majority vote after workers’ representatives and the state representatives agreed on a proposal to reflect the 7.68% rise in the cost of living.

He also said that “There are new and satisfactory efforts by our ministry to support employment in the private sector. Our goal is to enable the private sector to be attractive so as to en encourage local labour employment,”reports BRT.