THE poverty line for a single worker has been set at TL 1,999.14 by the Turkish Public Workers’ Labor Union (Kamu-Sen).

The figures are troublesome, as the average wage for a civil servant in Turkey is slightly over the TL 2,000 mark, while the minimum wage for a single worker without a family is TL 891.

Official figures from earlier this year indicated the average apartment rental price in Turkey was TL 602.

For a family of four, the poverty line was set at TL 4,065.27.

According to figures from the Turkish Statistics Institute (TurkStat), the average monthly food expenditures for a family of four was TL 949.89 as of September, meaning that for a civil servant earning the average sector wage of TL 2,185.30, food costs absorbed 43.47 percent of monthly wages.

When rent is factored in, the two expenditures accounted for 71.4 percent of a civil servant’s monthly wage, leaving only TL 625 remaining for such expenses as transportation, healthcare, communication, education and clothing.

According to Kamu-Sen, the figures reflect a major disparity between the rising costs of living and wage increases for civil servants.

Poverty threshold figures have climbed steadily over the past several years. TurkStat reported that the poverty line for a family of four has risen since 2008 as follows: TL 2,329 in February 2008, TL 2,464 in October 2009, TL 2,757 in September 2010, TL 3,063 in December 2011 and TL 3,470 by November 2013.