Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has proposed a 14.4 percent salary increase for himself in a draft budget submitted to parliament for approval, the Birgün daily reported, citing an opposition lawmaker.
Erdoğan proposed a monthly salary of TL 100,0000 ($10,753) in the draft budget for 2022, up 14.4 percent up from his current salary of TL 88,000 ($9,462), according to a tweet by main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) lawmaker Özgür Özel.
“According to the draft budget submitted to parliament, Erdoğan has increased his monthly salary to TL 100,000 with a whopping rise of 14.4 percent. The increase equals 4.5 times the minimum wage. This guy is a penny-pincher when it comes to raises for civil servants but very generous with his own salary. The palace gets the glory and poor citizens get the misery,” Özel tweeted.
TBMM'ye sunulan bütçe teklifine göre Tayyip Erdoğan kendi maaşını yüzde 14,4 oranında rekor zamla 100.000 TL'nin üzerine çıkardı.
Alacağı aylık zam 4,5 asgari ücret tutarında!
Bu tek adam memura işçiye emekliye cimri, kendine bonkör!
Saraya şatafat vatandaşa sefalet düşüyor! pic.twitter.com/BG8GySVNxc
— Özgür Özel (@eczozgurozel) October 19, 2021
Özel also shared a table showing Erdoğan’s monthly salary by year. Erdoğan was paid a monthly salary of TL 59,000 ($6,344) in 2018, which was increased to TL 74,500 ($8,010) in 2019 and TL 81,250 ($8,737) in 2020.
Erdoğan currently earns 31 times more than a minimum wage worker.
The net minimum wage announced by the government for 2021 is TL 2,826 ($304), the lowest such figure in in US dollars in the last 11 years.
Nearly half of all workers in Turkey, a country of 83 million, earn a monthly salary at or near minimum wage, a study by the Confederation of Revolutionary Workers’ Unions (DİSK) says.
Turkish lira has lost 40 percent of its value against the dollar this year, hit by concerns about Erdoğan’s influence on monetary policy and more recently by a diplomatic spat between Turkey and the United States.
Inflation rose to 19.58 percent in September, its highest in two-and-a-half years according to official data released earlier this month.