At its meeting on December 27, the Commission for Defining the Minimum Wage defined the amount of the minimum wage increase. According to the decision which will affect 13 million workers, the minimum wage will be increased for 4% for the first 6 months and 5% for the second half of the year. This means that the new minimum wage in 2008 will be net 435 YTL for the first half and net 457,63 YTL for the second half. According to statistics, the hunger line is at 697 YTL in the country, and the poverty line 2.270 YTL.
The General Centre of the trade union Tekstil-Sen organised an action on December 26 in front of the Regional Office of the Ministry of Labour in Unkapani, Istanbul to protest against the increase of the minimum wage which is equivalent to the increase of misery. The workers demanded "Not a wage of misery but human conditions" and declared that the increase of the minimum wage is realised following the directives of the IMF. It was also said that the collaborating AKP government pays trillions of YTL for the war and uses people's bread to finance militarisation and its war expenditure.
After the decision on the minimum wage increase, the general chair of DISK (Confederation of Revolutionary Workers Trade Unions) Süleyman Celebi made a statement in the name of the confederation protesting the misery increase.