The Minimum Wage Support which is being provided to employers per employees who are getting wage up to a certain amount, is being determined and increased for the first half of the year 2023.
Act No. 7431 on the Amendment of the Social Insurance and General Health Insurance Law and Some Laws and Statutory Decrees is being published in the Turkish Official Gazette dated January 13, 2023 and thus has entered into force. An important regulation in the law is that the monthly support amount given to employers by the Social Security Institution has been increased.
Accordingly, it is seen that the minimum wage support provided from 2016 to the end of 2022 in order to support employers to protect and increase employment by reducing labor costs, has been increased especially to ensure that small employers can cope with this burden more easily. In this regard, the minimum wage support is being increased from 100 Turkish Liras per month per employee to 400 Turkish Liras per month per employee for the first half of the year 2023.
“The minimum wage support” to be given to employers for their workers in the year 2023 will be applied with the following rules:
- Within the condition of workplace being registered before the year 2023, the support will be provided for workers whose daily earnings are TRL 250 or less, for workplaces belonging to private sector employers with collective bargaining agreements for workers whose daily earnings are TRL 500 or less, and for workplaces where lignite and hard coal are extracted for workers whose daily earnings are TRL 667 or less.
- If the workplace is to be registered in the calendar year of 2023, support will be available for the entire number of working days of all insurance holders subject to long-term insurance branches.
- Accordingly, the amount of support to be calculated will be equal to the amount to be found by multiplying the above-mentioned employees by 13.33 TL per day.
- Minimum wage support will be provided between 1st of January and 30th of June 2023.
- In case it is determined that an incomplete Concise and Premium Service Statement is made in the relevant month, which does not exceed one tenth of the monthly gross minimum wage of 2023 (TRL 1,000.8) , the application of minimum wage support will be continued for workplaces that make up for the aforementioned deficiency within a fifteen-day period upon a notice to be made by the Social Security Institution.
- Minimum wage support will not be paid in cash. The amount is envisaged as a discount and will be deducted from the insurance premium debts arising from the following month or months.
- The support will be provided for private sector workplace employers employing the insured employees who are in the 4-1/a social insurance status of the Law No. 5510 and who are subjected to long-term insurance branches.
- There is no application requirement to benefit from the minimum wage support.
- In order for workplaces registered for the first time in the year 2023 to benefit from the minimum wage support, the following conditions must be met:
- It is required to submit monthly premium and service documents or concise and premium service declarations for all months of 2023 within the legal time limit.
- The current month’s premiums must be paid within the legal period.
- There must be no premiums, administrative fines and related delay fines and late payment debts to the Social Security Institution (SSI), or the debts in question must be restructured in accordance with the Article 48 of the Law No. 6183.
- Persons employed for the year 2023 must be declared as insured, and the declared insured must be actually working in the workplace.
- The number of insured persons subject to long-term insurance branches in the month for which minimum wage support will be provided in the year 2023 must not fall below the lowest number of insured persons reported in 2022/ January to 2022/ December. For workplaces registered before 2023, no support will be given for the months in 2023 for which the insured is declared fall below the minimum number of insured persons.
- For employers who employ insurance holders for whom long-term insurance branches are applied within the scope of 4-1/a social insurance position, in the positions and jobs public administrations listed in table (I), (II), (III) and (IV) attached to Law No. 5018 will not be able to benefit from the support.
