Turkey’s decision to raise the minimum wage risks becoming a hollow victory for millions of workers, as more businesses warn of hiring freezes and layoffs to keep their labor bills down.
“My overall costs rose by a fifth because of the wage increase,” Caner Aktas, owner of a travel agency in the center of the capital Ankara, said of the boost to the lowest legal salary by a third to 1,300 liras ($446). “We were planning to add to our headcount, which is now 40. We’ll have to postpone.”
