Average Salary in Turkey - Guide for HR Leaders

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Turkey has been getting more attention lately for its young workforce, strong engineering talent, and fast-growing tech and services sectors. It seems promising, but when you look into the numbers, between euros, Turkish lira, and varying salary averages, it gets confusing quickly.

Without context, it is hard to know if a salary is actually competitive, either for you as a candidate or for the people you want to hire.

A big part of that context sits at the city level. National averages smooth out the real differences between Istanbul, Ankara, Izmir, Bursa, and Antalya. They also ignore the way inflation and currency movements change what those salaries really mean over time. To make solid decisions about hiring, pay, or relocation, you need to zoom in on specific cities and roles and test what good looks like for your situation, not for an abstract average worker.

Comparing average salaries across Turkey’s major cities

National numbers give you a baseline, but they don’t tell you what it costs to build a life in a particular place.

Istanbul, Ankara, Izmir, Bursa, and Antalya each play a different role in Turkey’s economy, and you feel that in salaries as well as in rent and daily expenses.

A few patterns tend to show up when you dig into city-level data:

Istanbul generally sits near the top of the pay scale in most white-collar roles, especially in technology, finance, and multinational headquarters roles, but higher wages are paired with some of the steepest housing and commuting costs in the country.
Ankara and Izmir tend to cluster around or slightly below Istanbul’s salary levels, with Ankara skewing toward public sector and white-collar roles and Izmir offering a mix of services, logistics, and industry that keeps pay reasonably strong in many professional fields.
Bursa and Antalya often offer lower average salaries than the first three cities, but day-to-day costs are often lower too, particularly outside peak tourist zones in Antalya and the more premium areas of Bursa.

If you look at real job postings and salary aggregators, you will often see mid-level professional roles in Istanbul paying a noticeable premium compared with similar roles in Bursa or Antalya. It is not unusual to see gaps of 10 to 30% for the same title. That sounds helpful on paper until you factor in rent, transport, and childcare in Istanbul, which can eat that premium and more.

To compare cities in a realistic way, it helps to follow a simple method.

First, get clear on the floor. Türkiye’s Labour and Social Security Ministry recently announced that the country’s minimum wage will increase to 28,075 Turkish lira (US$646) net per month for 2026, as reported by Hurriyet Daily News. Any full-time offer should sit comfortably above that line.

Next, pull real salary ranges by city for the roles you care about. Filter salary databases and job boards by location and job title, and look for ranges shown in recent postings. That gives you market reality in places like Istanbul or Izmir, not just an abstract national figure.

Then, bring the cost of living into the picture. Compare average rents, utilities, and transport costs across your shortlist of cities. A slightly lower salary in a more affordable city can leave more in your pocket than a headline number in a high-cost area.

Finally, check your thinking with people on the ground. Local recruiters, Turkish HR leaders, or an employer of record partner that works directly in Turkey can tell you if a salary band feels realistic for the level of experience, language skills, and sector you are targeting.

If you are building a distributed team, this kind of city-level lens keeps you from overpaying for roles in lower-cost cities or losing out on talent in Istanbul because you set your sights on a national average that is too low for that market.

Average salaries in key sectors and professions

Once you decide where in Turkey you want to focus, the next question is what type of work you are talking about. Two people living in the same neighborhood in Izmir can be on very different pay scales depending on whether they work in hospitality, engineering, education, or technology.

In hospitality and tourism, especially in Antalya and parts of Istanbul, many hotel and restaurant roles sit close to the legal minimum wage. You typically see modest bumps for language skills, seniority, or jobs in high-end hotels and resorts. Tips can help, especially in tourist-heavy districts, but they are seasonal and unpredictable.

Engineering roles in cities like Istanbul, Ankara, and Bursa, particularly in automotive, manufacturing, and infrastructure, usually track above the national average. Mid-career engineers working for export-oriented firms or large domestic manufacturers often see pay that reflects both technical depth and the need to compete with international employers.

Education is more mixed. Public sector teaching salaries are set on nationwide scales, so they may not keep pace with the cost of living in the most expensive cities. Private schools and international institutions in places like Istanbul or Ankara often offer stronger packages, sometimes with housing support or allowances built in.

Technology is still one of the most competitive areas. Senior developers, product managers, and engineering leaders in Istanbul’s startup and tech ecosystem can earn several multiples of the minimum wage. Some employers partly denominate these salaries in euros or dollars to make offers more resilient to currency swings.

When you compare offers or design a salary band, it helps to look at both gross and net pay.

Gross salary is the number you see in the contract before income tax and social security contributions. Net salary is what actually lands in your or your employee’s bank account each month. As you move up the pay scale, the gap between those two numbers grows. If you only look at gross figures, you can easily misread how far a salary will go.

As an employer, you also want to understand your total cost per employee, not just the gross salary. That includes your share of social security, unemployment insurance, and any mandatory or customary benefits. If you are not familiar with these costs, working with a local payroll provider or an EOR that already runs payroll in Turkey gives you realistic numbers to plug into your forecast.

If you are a candidate, it is worth taking an hour to scan several recent job listings for similar roles in your target city, cross-check ranges with at least one independent salary database that tracks Turkey, and ask recruiters what candidates are actually accepting, not just what companies list as a baseline.

What makes a good salary in Turkey

In a fast-changing economy, a good salary is less of a fixed number and more of a moving target.

Turkey has seen repeated jumps in wages and prices over the past few years. At the end of 2025, authorities approved a 27% increase in the minimum wage for 2026, taking the net monthly minimum to 28,075 TRY and aligning with official efforts to protect workers’ purchasing power. In the same period, annual inflation was roughly 31% for the year to December 2025.

Broader Consumer Price Index data and forecasts for Turkey show inflation moderating from its highest point but staying elevated by global standards. In that setting, a static salary number is not that helpful.

A more practical way to decide whether a salary is good is to start with your life, then work back to the offer. You can list out typical monthly costs for your situation and city, including rent, utilities, food, transport, childcare, and any loan or family obligations. Then you can add what you want to put aside for savings, emergencies, and extras like travel or hobbies.

A simple rule many people use in high-inflation environments is to aim for a net salary that is at least twice fixed essential costs. It is not perfect, but it forces you to test whether an offer leaves breathing room.

In real life, that looks different from person to person. A young professional in Ankara sharing a flat and using public transport may be comfortable with a lower net salary than a mid-career professional with children in Istanbul who is paying for private schooling and a car. A remote worker paid in euros or dollars who chooses to live in Antalya may find that a salary that looks modest by Western standards translates into a very comfortable lifestyle in lira, even taking inflation into account .

On the hiring side, you can take the same mindset and apply it to your salary bands. Ask whether your target salary for a mid-level engineer in Istanbul still leaves enough room after rent and basics. If the answer is no, you will feel it in retention and in the quality of candidates you attract.

Growth, inflation, and currency trends

To really understand salaries in Turkey, you need to zoom out for a moment and look at the bigger economic picture.

The Central Bank of the Republic of Türkiye regularly publishes consumer price data based on Turkish Statistical Institute releases and keeps price stability as its main objective. External trackers that aggregate this official data show annual inflation hovering around the low 30% range at the end of 2025. That is a big improvement from previous highs, but still enough to change how far a salary stretches in a short period.

The Turkish lira has also lost value against major currencies like the U.S. dollar and the euro over the last several years. That matters in a few ways. If you pay people partly in a foreign currency, sharp exchange rate moves can change your costs quickly. If you are a candidate with expenses or savings in another currency, the way the lira moves can change how attractive a lira-based salary really is.

You don’t have to be a macroeconomist to understand it all. The idea is to treat salary decisions as something you revisit, not something set in stone.

Before you sign a long-term offer or roll out a new hiring plan in Turkey, you can do a quick macro check. Look at the latest inflation data from official or well-documented sources. Pull at least a year of USD/TRY or EUR/TRY history so you can see how the currency has been moving. Review minimum wage changes over the last few years to understand how often and how sharply wages have been reset.

Then you can ask a few simple questions. What happens to this salary if inflation stays higher than expected? What if the lira weakens further against your chosen currency? If you like the answers, you are in good shape. If not, it may be time to adjust the numbers or how you structure pay.

Tips and resources for salary research and using EOR support

Once you have this foundation, you can turn it into a plan that fits the way you work.

If you are a candidate, you can:

Use multiple data points when you research salaries, including local job boards, Turkish-language platforms, official statistics, and global salary tools that clearly identify Turkey as the market.
Prepare a simple cost-of-living worksheet for your target city, listing rent, utilities, food, transport, and savings goals, and bring it into salary conversations.
Check whether prospective employers work with an employer of record partner in Turkey, especially if you are being hired by a foreign company without a local entity.

If you are an employer hiring into Turkey, the easiest way to hire without a local entity is by utilizing an employer of record. An EOR is a third-party organization that becomes the legal employer of your team member in a given country while you direct their day-to-day work. The EOR signs the compliant employment contract, runs payroll, handles statutory contributions, manages required benefits, and keeps up with local labor-law changes. You get the talent and manage their work, the EOR keeps the relationship compliant.

Pebl offers world-class EOR services in 185+ countries worldwide. Check out our employer of record in Turkey page for an overview of notice periods, common benefits, and employment norms so you can line up salary decisions with the full picture of employment costs.

Bringing city salaries and hiring plans together

If you want to hire or work in Turkey with confidence, you need to know three things: city-level differences between Istanbul, Ankara, Izmir, Bursa, and Antalya, realistic salary bands for your specific role and sector, and the current inflation and currency trends.

This combination helps you build offers that are both competitive and sustainable. You are less likely to overpay for roles in lower-cost cities, and you are less likely to miss out on talent in high-demand hubs because you leaned on outdated averages. If you are a candidate or employee, the same framework helps you evaluate offers by more than just the headline number and protect your purchasing power over time.

The key takeaway message is simple: do not rely on a single average salary in Turkey. Use city-by-city and sector-specific data, plus your own lifestyle or budget assumptions, to decide whether a salary really works for you.

How Pebl helps you hire and pay in Turkey

If you’ve settled on Turkey as part of your global hiring strategy, you don’t have to go it alone. Pebl’s employer of record services are designed to help you hire, pay, and support talent in Turkey without spinning up a local entity or building in-house expertise in Turkish labor law.

You can start with our guide for hiring in Turkey to understand local work authorization rules, notice periods, common benefits, and cultural expectations. If you plan to move talent into the country, check out our guide to Turkey work visas and authorization for the main routes and requirements.

Pebl isn’t just a tool. You are partnering with a team that can help you reach your expansion goals, whether it’s in Turkey or Tasmania. Contact us to learn more.

This information does not, and is not intended to, constitute legal or tax advice and is for general informational purposes only. The intent of this document is solely to provide general and preliminary information for private use. Do not rely on it as an alternative to legal, financial, taxation, or accountancy advice from an appropriately qualified professional. The content in this guide is provided “as is,” and no representations are made that the content is error-free.