Minimum wage support and general employer support (2026)

Orhan Abi the coffeehouse owner's sums

Orhan Abi runs his coffeehouse in the market with two employees: Selçuk at the stove and Barış the waiter. One day his mali müşavir (accountant) said, "This month 2,539.80 lira was deducted from the amount you'll pay to SGK." Orhan Abi was surprised: "But I didn't apply for anything." The mali müşavir laughed: "There's no application, the system deducts it itself. It's the minimum wage support."

This lesson has two topics: the general support open to every employer in 2026, and how to weigh the "new incentives" you hear about in the news.

Support is like credit at the corner shop

The neighbourhood grocer sometimes says, "Abi, I charged you too much last week, we'll take it off next time." The money isn't handed to you; it is deducted from the bill on your next shopping trip. The minimum wage support is the same: SGK does not pay you cash, it deducts it from the premium debt of the following months.

Minimum wage support 2026

Its basis is provisional art. 112 of Law No. 5510, added by Law No. 7573 (Official Gazette 29.01.2026), and SGK's Circular 2026/8 dated 5 March 2026.

• Amount: For 2026, 42.33 lira per insured person per day. For someone who works a full month, 30 × 42.33 = 1,269.90 lira.
• Period: The months January–December 2026.
• Application: None. SGK itself lets an employer who meets the conditions benefit.
• How it is used: It is deducted from the premium debt of the months following the relevant month; if there is no premium debt, from other SGK debts such as administrative fines. According to the circular, if a return for 2026 is processed after 28 February 2027, the days on that return do not count towards the support at all. So a return filed late or corrected later can take the support away.
• Missing days: The support is calculated by number of days. For an employee reported with 20 days it is 20 × 42.33 = 846.60 lira.

Both of Orhan Abi's employees worked the full month, and both were also working for him on the minimum wage in 2025 (why this matters is explained below): 2 × 1,269.90 = 2,539.80 lira. If the whole year goes like this, it comes to a little over 30,000 lira.

Who benefits and who does not?

Who benefits: private sector employers, for their normal insured employees for whom the pension premium is also paid (in SGK's words, those subject to the long-term insurance branches). Workplaces newly opened in 2026 and workplaces that reported no employees at all in 2025 are also covered.

Who does not benefit: public employers; and there is no such support for people who are retired and work paying the social security support premium.

The conditions are in line with the common conditions you saw in the previous lesson:

• Returns filed and premiums paid on time.
• No overdue premium, administrative fine or late payment debt to SGK. Restructured debt or debt put into instalments is not an obstacle.
• No detection in 2026 of uninsured employment, fake insured persons, or insured persons who do not actually work.
• At workplaces opened before 2026, the number of employees reported in 2026 must not fall below the number in the month of 2025 with the fewest employees reported. In a month when it falls, no support is received.

One more limit for workplaces that had employees in 2025: At a workplace opened before 2026 that reported employees in 2025, the number of support days cannot exceed the total days of the employees reported to SGK in the same month of 2025 with daily gross earnings (earnings subject to premiums) of up to 1,300 lira, that is, up to 39,000 lira in a 30-day month. This amount is not the upper limit of the wage you may pay in 2026; it is only a measure that looks at 2025. The result is this: if you had one employee in 2025 and hired a second in 2026, the support will often come only for one person's days. At a workplace newly opened in 2026, or one that reported no employees at all in 2025, this limit does not apply. Ask your mali müşavir to work out your own workplace's figures.

One more warning: according to the circular, if sham transactions are made to get the support, such as closing the workplace and opening the same business as if it were a new workplace, the amount received is reclaimed with late payment penalty and surcharge. If uninsured employment, or showing as insured a person who does not actually work, is detected in 2026, that year's support cannot be received and what was received is reclaimed.

Don't build your budget on the support

For now the minimum wage support belongs only to the year 2026. Whether it will continue in 2027, and if so what the amount will be, will become clear with a new decision. So calculate the employee cost with the figure without support, and count the support as a plus if it comes. The full cost table with figures is in the article How much does an employee cost me? (in Turkish).

Is there a "general employer support"?

Short answer: in 2026 there are two general supports open to every employer. One is the Treasury discount explained in the previous lesson (2 points outside manufacturing, 5 points in manufacturing), the other is the minimum wage support. Both are conditional; debt and a late return can take both away at once.

In past years, broad supports under the name "additional employment", open to every employer who increased their number of employees, were introduced. The hiring periods for these have ended. The current incentive lists published in August 2026 do not include a new general support of this kind open to all employers; and in October 2026 we have not seen a new law or decision either. Before hiring, have your mali müşavir confirm this once more. Person-related supports are a separate matter: the youth and women employment incentive is in the next lesson. There are also separate supports for situations such as hiring a disabled employee (Labour Law No. 4857, art. 30) or someone receiving social assistance (Law No. 3294, additional art. 5); ask your mali müşavir when making such a hire.

Sector-specific supports

Some supports are open only to certain kinds of work. Example: by provisional article 36 added to Law No. 4447 by Law No. 7590 (Official Gazette 31 July 2026), a premium support of 116.67 lira per insured person per day for the months May–December 2026 was introduced for private sector accommodation facilities with a tourism operation certificate (implementation: SGK Circular 2026/21). The scope is limited to facilities whose activity code is accommodation (NACE 55); businesses other than accommodation, such as restaurants, cafés, entertainment venues and travel agencies, are not covered. Nor is Orhan Abi's coffeehouse.

There are also premium supports that come with an investment incentive certificate; these apply to certified investments and are usually not relevant for a small shop hiring its first employee.

When you hear "a new incentive has arrived" in the news

Incentive news is talked about a lot, and most of it is not yet a rule. Ask three questions:

• Has the law or decision been published in the Official Gazette (Resmî Gazete), or is it still a proposal?
• Has SGK issued the circular or announcement explaining how it is applied?
• Does it fit my business and my employee?

Do not make a hiring or budget decision based on a regulation that is still at the proposal stage. Ask your mali müşavir first.

Orhan Abi left a note for his mali müşavir: "In December let's check whether the minimum wage support continues in 2027." He will make the coffeehouse's price list for January then.