The minimum of the minimum: Footsteps of a social explosion

''Mediocre'' is a word most of us use incorrectly. It is very common to use this word, which means average, to imply something bad or vulgar. In a way, this is actually a productive mistake. After all, the average does not really satisfy a person.

For years, the ''average'' has been implicitly beaten down and belittled. Terms like ''average person'', ''average vacation spot'', ''average family'', ''middle class'' have never been mentioned with any appetite.

Yet now, the average has no meaning left. Average values have come so close to minimum values that the minimum has become the average.

This situation also applies to the minimum wage. In a normal country, the ''minimum wage'' is accepted as the lowest wage for which one can work in exchange for a normal working day. This value is determined by looking at the purchasing power of goods and services sufficient for an ''average person'' to survive, find shelter, and in short, meet their basic needs.

Let's look at the current definition of minimum wage:

''Minimum wage: Refers to the wage paid to workers in exchange for a normal working day, sufficient to meet the worker's mandatory needs such as food, housing, clothing, health, transportation, and culture at a minimum level based on current prices.''

''Mandatory needs''—note the emphasis! These needs correspond to the needs of everyone who is working or has worked. For instance, there is no difference between the mandatory needs of retirees and those of minimum wage earners.

Since the ''minimum wage'' refers to the wage sufficient to meet the mandatory needs of a person receiving a wage for their labor at a minimum level based on current prices, retirement pensions should not be below the minimum wage. However, today, retirement pensions have fallen below the minimum wage. This situation is an admission that retirees cannot meet their ''mandatory needs.''

Moreover, the minimum wage has ceased to be the lowest wage received and has effectively turned into a resistance point for the average wage trend. This gap is closing every day. The minimum wage has effectively become the average wage. In fact, when the informal economy and those who are openly exploited under different names (for example, interns and seasonal workers) are taken into account, the minimum wage has remained above the average wage. The minimum wage is mediocre. Anything below it is blatant exploitation.

According to one statistic, approximately 65% of wage earners are minimum wage earners. If we also take into account those earning approximately 10% above the minimum wage, 80% of wage earners receive wages in this range. There are also those who participate in production in some way and receive wages below the minimum wage. When we also account for the components of the workforce that are not reflected in the records, perhaps more than 90% of wage earners receive a salary around the minimum wage.

If we consider that the minimum wage is determined according to the biased data of TÜİK (Turkish Statistical Institute), this means that more than 90% of wage earners cannot meet their mandatory needs. If we add to this the unemployed and the segments not counted among the unemployed due to bias in unemployment calculations (for example, older university students and those who have lost hope of finding a job), we can easily conclude that the overwhelming majority of our people cannot meet their mandatory needs.

What is even more dire is that minimum wage legislation does not take into account the family members the worker is responsible for when determining mandatory needs. When the mandatory needs of the individuals the worker is responsible for are also taken into account, we can see that our people are being brutally exploited.

Even leaving aside the problems in determining the minimum wage and the phenomenon of the average wage merging with the minimum wage, governments, through inflation and exchange rate policies, indirect taxes, injustices in tax policy, and tendencies to move away from the principle of a social state, are reducing the purchasing power of the public and transferring wealth. When all these are considered together, there is a minimum of the minimum, a bottom of the bottom. We are at that bottom. All of these are the footsteps of a social explosion.

''Social explosion'' should not be thought of only as mass street protests. The increasing informal economy, drug use, crime economy, suicides, and heavy legal and administrative interventions are also within the scope of this explosion. In fact, the youth and qualified workforce leaving the country is another dimension of this explosion. In short, in a system that imposes not just mediocrity but the minimum of the minimum, this wheel cannot turn for long. Urgent steps must be taken. If the explosion continues like this, it is unclear who will be left under the wreckage.