a. Minimum Wage

In the press release dated December 22, 2022, the Ministry of Labor, along with the Minimum Wage Determination Committee has announced the minimum wage to be effective for the year of 2023, as shown in the table below.

The Bilateral Social Security Administrative Agreement between Türkiye and Iran has been approved by the decision published on the Official Gazette dated December 15, 2022 and numbered 32044.

The scope of the Administrative Agreement is as below:

• Sickness and maternity allowances.
• Old age, disability and death pensions.
• Funeral allowance.
• Occupational diseases.

With the Circular dated November 23, 2022 and numbered 2022/20, published by the Social Security Institution, it was decided to exclude 23,65 percent of the daily gross minimum wage from the SSI premium earnings, for all kinds of payments made to the employees or to third parties for the insured.

Between the dates December 1 2022 and December 31, 2022, the amount of meal allowance to be exempted from the SSI premium earnings of the employees will be applied as 215.70 TRY x 23.65% = 51.01 TRY (Daily).

With the "Regulation on Amending of the Regulation on Social Security Transactions" published in the Official Gazette dated November 11, 2022 and numbered 32010, arrangements were made regarding the cost of meals being subject to SSI premium.

The below changes have been made with the new regulation on the Social Security Transactions.

• In case that, meals are not provided to the employees by the employer in the workplaces and its outbuildings, all kinds of payments made to the employee and third parties for the insured under the name of meal cost will be exempt from the SSI premium base. The SSI exemption of cash meal allowance will be applied for actual workday.
• The exemption rate will be announced by SSI.
• The new application will enter into force on 1st of December 2022.