Minimum wage protest from HKP: Wages are fleas, price hikes are camels

According to Cumhuriyet's report, members of the People's Liberation Party gathered at Beşiktaş Square in Istanbul to protest minimum wage negotiations, unemployment, high costs of living, and price hikes. HKP members carried a banner reading "Minimum wage should not be a starvation wage" and signs reading "Hikes, hikes, hikes, when will things get cheaper?", "We live on installments and die in debt", and "Wages are fleas, price hikes are camels".

Making a press statement, Aybars Yalçınkaya said, "It is clear that this farce taking place behind closed doors will not result in anything beneficial for the workers and laborers, as is always the case."

"WE WANT A WAGE THAT ALLOWS FOR A HUMANE LIFE"

Yalçınkaya stated the following:

"While the AKP and its cronies continue to fill their coffers and their partisan bureaucrats continue to receive salaries from three or four different places under the name of 'attendance fees', the daily expense of the illegal Palace reaches 15 million 533 thousand 688 liras, which is equivalent to 1362 minimum wages. With things as they are, workers and laborers are condemned to a starvation wage of 11 thousand 402 TL, and retirees to 7 thousand 500 TL. Workers and retirees do not want charity; they want a wage/salary that allows them to live humanely."

"THE MINIMUM WAGE SHOULD BE 45 THOUSAND 686 TL"

HKP member Aybars Yalçınkaya concluded his statement by saying, "The current normal cost of living index, that is, the amount required for a family of 4 to maintain a normal life, is at least 45,686 TL. For this reason, the minimum wage should be at least 45,686 TL. And the minimum wage should be updated according to the poverty line announced every month."