Job Discussion Forums

dmb · Joined: 12 Feb 2003 Posts: 8397

In the ME alot of people are thinking of leaving due to the weak dollar. Generally, people are paid petro currencies which are linked to the dollar. When I convert my salary to dollars it's the same as it was 18 months ago. However, if I convert it to sterling then I am on about 400 pounds a month less. Hence the reason many Europeans are thinking about or,like me, leaving. Anyway back to the question. i know the Lira is bout 1.33 million against the dollar(about 300,000 TL less than when I left. Inflation is at an all time low. But how is this affecting the EFL monthly salary. Do you find you have less spare cash, more or haven't really noticed a difference?

yaramaz · Posted: Tue Mar 02, 2004 6:00 pm Post subject:

I get my salary in pounds. Last year, half of it was direct deposited in a pound account and the other half converted into a lira chequing account. The exchange rate was set in Sept and January. For the first half of the year I made 753 million TL a month in my converted salary, and in the second half I made 815 million TL. However, because the pound dropped horribly over the summer, I returned to... 600 million! And this was with inflation- bread rising from 120 bin to 200 bin, bus fares going up a fw hundred bin, blah blah. However, the lira and the pound eventually levelled out and we managed to get the school to pay us only in pounds and we only convert what we need. I find I'm saving a lot more this way too.

So, to answer your question... yea, its a bit tighter this year but nothing bad. I still make twice as much as the Turkish teachers who must support a family and home (I have free housing).

gelin · Joined: 09 Mar 2003 Posts: 144 Location: Istanbul, Turkey

Well my salary is pegged to the dollar. I have a dollar account in country, as well as a TL account. I've noticed that my salary doesn't go as far as it usually did. My colleagues and I figure about a 20% decrease. Gas has gone up, and promised price rises are acoming, though the cigarette one is being challenged...

dmb · Joined: 12 Feb 2003 Posts: 8397

Oh my God. don't tell me there is talk of ciggies going up again. I remember when a pack of twenty was ..... actually I just realised I can't remember how much a pack was about 12 years ago.Anyone remember? I do remember my first pay cheque was 6 million a month though.

FGT · Joined: 14 Sep 2003 Posts: 762 Location: Turkey

11 years ago my basic salary was 5 million, on a good month it might have risen to 8, and this was before the introduction of the big notes - a wage packet was FAT in those days!
I can remember a packet of cigarettes costing the equivalent of 30p, it's now about 80p. Prices are rising here - in international terms (they always rose in lire, sometimes by 100% per annum, but now there's a more overall increase). 80p is still a hell of a lot better than �4. Plus smoking is far more acceptable here.
I've always been paid in TL and overall I think it's worked for me rather than against me - it used to be that a $ or � salary was better, because the hard currency always gained against TL, now that's not always the case (why and how long for are other questions) so I find it works to have a salary quoted in TL that rises in line with Turkish inflation a couple of times a year.
To put it another way - approximately 10% of my income goes on rent, rent goes up in line with inflation, if my salary does too then I'm laughing!

Mike_2003 · Joined: 27 Mar 2003 Posts: 344 Location: Bucharest, Romania

When I first came here my wage was in USD but paid in TL. At the time prices and currency rates rose in about equal measures, so there was little difference.

After the economic crash, they stopped linking my wage to the dollar and fixed it in TL, so it would slowly lose value while the cost of living was increasing rapidly.

About three years ago I quit and went completely freelance. Now I just raise my hourly rate according to the cost of living. Long-standing students always keep there initial rate, a kind of "loyalty bonus", and new students pay the newest rate. This way, except for the obvious disadvantages of freelancing (Jan/Feb was poor: New Year, Bayram and bad weather), I can keep my standard of living around the same regardless of economic conditions.

Mike.

jebjeb · Joined: 03 Mar 2004 Posts: 12

i have many friends working on 1/2 & 1/2 contracts (pounds/$ and TL) they just got their TL accounts adjusted again a few days ago, another 100mTL down. in the past year their TL salaries have gone down over 400mTL. luckily they have lojmans, but saving has been tight for them this year. some of the important things are still inexpensive: bottle of wine 3.25 mTL