It is Possible to Develop with the Minimum Wage; Eastern Turkey Should Be Our Country's Huge Factory
Many of the problems that Turkiye has been unable to solve for years have a common root cause: unemployment. Where there is unemployment, there is migration, poverty and social tension. Therefore, when discussing development, we must first accept that no reform can be sustainable without jobs and livelihoods.
The minimum wage has been a hotly debated issue in Turkey for years. However, the problem is not the minimum wage itself; it is where and how the millions of people working for this wage are employed. With the right industrial policy, by directing labour-intensive sectors to the East, it is possible to provide 1–2 million people with jobs at the minimum wage level within a reasonable period of time. This could be a real opportunity for the country's development, rather than a burden. New factories in eastern Turkey will not only create jobs, but also bring economic balance to the country.
Many of the problems that Turkey has been unable to solve for years have a common root cause: unemployment. Where there is unemployment, there is migration, poverty and social tension. Therefore, when discussing development, we must first accept that no reform can be sustainable without jobs and livelihoods.
If people in a country are working, producing and able to make a living, education improves, cities develop and democracy strengthens. The root cause of Turkey's fundamental problems is not ideological, but economic.
Today, the majority of workers in our country are living on the minimum wage or very close to it. The minimum wage is no longer an exceptional wage; it has effectively become the prevailing wage in the country. So let's be realistic; instead of ignoring this fact, we must turn it into a tool for development.
The key question here is: where and under what conditions is this large group of people working for the minimum wage employed, or should be employed?
Unemployment rates are high in Eastern and South-Eastern Anatolia, the young population is large, and the pressure to migrate is very strong. In the West, population density is increasing; the housing crisis, infrastructure problems and social tensions are deepening. Years of migration from East to West have neither developed the East nor relieved the West.
Yet the solution is clear and, in fact, singular: to relocate and direct industries that predominantly employ workers at minimum wage to the eastern part of our country.
Labour-intensive sectors such as textiles, ready-to-wear clothing, footwear, simple assembly, and food processing can be easily relocated to the East or established there with proper planning and incentives, without requiring high technology. Investments currently going to Egypt and Bangladesh could have gone to Diyarbakır, Van, and Şanlıurfa with the right infrastructure and a determined industrial policy. There is no need to sell dreams; the figures are strong enough. Today, there are over 4 million salaried workers in the manufacturing industry alone in Turkey.
Approximately 1 million of these are employed in textiles and ready-to-wear clothing, 700–800 thousand in the food industry, half a million in furniture and wood products, and hundreds of thousands in labour-intensive sectors such as footwear, packaging and simple assembly. This picture shows that the issue is not to invent a new structure, but to shift and direct the existing production capacity to the right geography.
With realistic planning, it is not an exaggeration to say that 1 to 2 million people could be employed at the minimum wage level in Eastern and Southeastern Anatolia in the medium term; it is an achievable goal.
Let's think concretely. When 1 million people are provided with minimum wage jobs in the East, billions of liras in regular income will flow into the region every month. This money is not just wages; it will go to local businesses, to rent, to transport, to education. Now multiply this effect by 2 million, even 3 million people. It is not difficult to see that migration from the East to the West will slow down, the local economy will revive, and the need for social assistance will decrease; it is not a fantasy.
The textile sector is particularly strategic in this regard. This sector, which accounts for a significant share of Turkey's exports, also represents a major opportunity for women's employment. Textile-specialised organised industrial zones established in the East could involve hundreds of thousands of women in production. This signifies not only an economic but also a social transformation.
The state has an important role to play here. The state is no longer just an actor providing incentives; when necessary, it must be a pioneering investor, an entrepreneur entering large industrial projects with a new vision. This is entirely possible with an industrial policy that learns from the mistakes of the past, is transparent, efficient, and based on regional development.
In conclusion, when used in the right place and in the right sectors, the minimum wage will be a development tool, not an indicator of poverty. If production increases in the East, the West will also benefit. People will be able to make a living where they were born, and the country will be balanced. Turkey's most pressing need should be more jobs and more food.
References
- Can Migration from East to West Be Reversed?
- https://strasam.org/siyaset/kamu-politikalari/dogudan-batiya-goc-tersine-donusturulemez-mi-3878
- The State Must Once Again Become an Industrialist with Large Companies, but This Time with a Different Vision
- https://strasam.org/strateji/turkiye-ekonomisi/devlet-yeniden-buyuk-firmalar-ile-ama-bu-kez-farkli-bir-vizyonla-tekrar-sanayici-olmalidir-3912
