Payroll in Turkey

Turkish Labour Law requires you to pay wages at least once a month. An employment contract or collective agreement can set a shorter interval, but monthly is the floor.

Pay date, gross salary and payslips

Agree the payment date and the gross salary in writing. Every payment needs a payslip that separately shows the pay period, the additions and the deductions. If you promised a bonus, or an employee has an established entitlement to one, treat it as its own line rather than folding it into salary. There is no universal statutory thirteenth salary to add on top.

Paying wages through a bank

Since 1 July 2025, employers covered by the bank-payment rule must pay net wages, bonuses and similar amounts through banks once they employ at least three workers across Turkey. The earlier threshold was five.

Count your whole workforce in the country, not just one team. Keep payroll and payment records, and check the regulation's specific exceptions before assuming cash or another method is allowed.

Working hours and overtime

The normal statutory working week is up to 45 hours, usually spread across the working days unless you agree a lawful alternative. Daily work must not exceed 11 hours. Hours can generally be averaged over two months, extendable to four by collective agreement. A five-day schedule is fine. The law does not require everyone to work six days.

Overtime is where payroll errors pile up, so it helps to see the rules side by side.

Ordinary overtime is capped at 270 hours a year. Time off in lieu is the employee's choice and is normally used within six months. Ordinary overtime also needs the employee's written consent, either in the contract or when the need arises, and the employee can withdraw it with 30 days' written notice. Part-time workers cannot be scheduled for ordinary overtime under the regulation. Consent never waives the limits.

Filing and payment deadlines

This guide does not list monthly filing or contribution payment dates. Confirm the current deadlines for social insurance with the Social Security Institution (SGK) and for income tax and stamp duty with the Revenue Administration before your first pay run, and build them into your payroll calendar.

Wage income in Turkey is taxed progressively, from 15% to 40% in 2026. These are marginal rates on annual taxable wage income, not a flat rate on the whole salary.

Income tax bands for wage income

Watch the third band. For wage income it runs to TRY 1,500,000, which is different from the TRY 1,000,000 threshold that applies to nonwage income. Using the wrong table is an easy mistake if your tax reference is not specific to employment income.

Because the bands work on annual income, payroll has to track each employee's cumulative taxable base through the year, along with deductions and the minimum-wage exemption. Treating each month in isolation gives the wrong answer.

The minimum-wage exemption

The minimum wage is exempt from income tax and stamp duty. That exemption also matters for people earning more. For pay above the minimum, payroll calculates the applicable exemption and taxes the rest. The whole higher salary does not become tax-free.

Here is the Revenue Administration's standard 2026 calculation for a minimum-wage employee:

Employee social security deductions

On top of tax, employees pay 15% of the relevant contribution base in 2026: 9% for pension, disability and survivors' insurance, 5% for health insurance and 1% for unemployment insurance. These come out of take-home pay. They are not a second employer contribution.

Income tax, any taxable stamp duty and any applicable automatic-enrolment pension contributions are separate from these deductions, so make sure your payroll setup handles each one on its own.

For an ordinary employee under the standard 4/a scheme, you pay 23.75% of the applicable contribution base in 2026, on top of gross salary and before any eligible reductions.

The four employer contributions

Retired workers, special occupations, exemptions and incentives can change the calculation, so check the employee's status before you apply the standard rates.

Contribution floor and ceiling

For a full month in the ordinary private-sector 4/a scheme in 2026, the insurable earnings floor is TRY 33,030 and the ceiling is TRY 297,270. The ceiling is nine times the minimum, not the older 7.5-times figure. Apply the ceiling to the relevant insurance calculation only. It is not an income tax ceiling.

Partial months, excluded payments, extra pay and special schemes need their own calculation, so check those cases rather than reusing the full-month figures.

Reductions you might qualify for

The ministry's 2026 minimum-wage examples show a five-percentage-point SGK reduction for qualifying manufacturing employers and a two-point reduction for qualifying employers in other sectors. With the separate 2% unemployment contribution included, that gives these employer rates:

What a TRY 50,000 salary really costs

Take an ordinary 4/a employee on TRY 50,000 gross a month, with the same contribution base and no incentives.

That is TRY 11,875 a month in employer contributions, and TRY 742,500 for 12 identical months of salary plus contributions. It is a floor, not the full budget. Add benefits, overtime, bonuses, equipment, expenses and any termination costs on top.

Annual leave in Turkey starts at 14 working days once an employee has completed a year of service, and it grows with tenure. The probation period counts towards that first year.

Annual leave

Workers aged 18 or younger, or 50 or older, get at least 20 days. Underground workers get four additional days. Public holidays and weekly rest days that fall inside a period of annual leave do not count against it.

Leave can be split by agreement, as long as at least one part is ten days or longer. There is no current general limit of three parts. You must pay leave wages in advance, or as an advance, before the leave starts. When employment ends, unused earned leave is paid at the final wage, whatever the reason for leaving.

Public holidays

The statutory calendar adds up to 15.5 days, including half days:

• New Year's Day
• 23 April
• 1 May
• 19 May
• 15 July
• 30 August
• Republic Day, from 13:00 on 28 October through 29 October
• Ramadan Bayram, 3.5 days
• Kurban Bayram, 4.5 days

The religious dates move each year, so update your payroll calendar annually. An administrative holiday for public employees does not automatically create an extra private-sector holiday.

Holiday work follows the employment or collective agreement. If neither covers it, you need the employee's consent. A covered worker who does not work still receives normal holiday pay. One who works the holiday gets an additional day's wage under Article 47 of the Labour Law. A substitute day off does not replace that extra payment, and half days need to be handled correctly.

Sick leave

For ordinary sickness, eligible 4/a workers generally receive a temporary-incapacity benefit from SGK from the third day. They need at least 90 days of short-term insurance contributions in the preceding year and an authorised medical report. The benefit is normally two-thirds of insured daily earnings for outpatient treatment and one-half for inpatient treatment. SGK does not pay the first two days under this rule.

What you pay as the employer depends on the salary arrangement and the applicable terms. Fixed monthly wage rules can require you to keep paying salary, offset by the SGK benefit.

Maternity, paternity and family leave

Since 1 May 2026, ordinary maternity leave is 24 weeks: eight before birth and 16 after. Multiple pregnancies add two prenatal weeks, making 26. With medical approval and the employee's request, she can work until two weeks before the expected birth and add the unused prenatal leave after the birth. The older 16-week figure is no longer the general entitlement.

The SGK maternity benefit generally requires at least 90 days of short-term contributions in the year before birth, plus the medical and nonworking conditions. The statutory rate is normally two-thirds of insured daily earnings for outpatient treatment or one-half for inpatient treatment. Any salary continuation or top-up from you is a separate payroll decision.

A worker whose spouse gives birth gets ten days of paid leave under Additional Article 2 of the Labour Law. Law 7578 raised this from five days from 1 May 2026. Keep it separate from the mother's maternity leave and benefit.

The half-time option is unpaid for the nonworking half, with separate benefit rules. Check which option an employee is using and how pay and benefits will be handled before the change hits payroll.

Bonuses

Turkey has no general thirteenth-month salary. A bonus becomes payable through an agreement, an employment condition or your own undertaking, and the Code of Obligations addresses the proportion earned when someone leaves before the bonus period ends. Write down the amount or formula, the conditions, the payment date and what happens on departure, and check any collective agreement.

Compliance in Turkey comes down to four things payroll touches directly: probation, working-time limits, severance and final pay. Each has its own rules, and a collective agreement can change several of them.

Probation

A probation clause can last up to two months, or up to four months under a collective agreement. During a valid probation period either side can end the employment without the normal notice or termination compensation. The employee still keeps the pay and other rights earned for the work done. Probation does not switch off minimum pay, insurance, safety or discrimination protections.

Working-time limits

Night work is generally limited to 7.5 hours. Specified tourism, private security, health and petroleum exploration or drilling work can go beyond that with the worker's written consent, while the other limits still apply. That sector exception is not a general right to schedule office staff overnight. Workers changing shifts need at least 11 consecutive hours of rest.

Breaks do not count as working time. The general rule is at least 24 consecutive hours of weekly rest within seven days, and the working-time regulation also addresses 12 consecutive hours of rest in every 24.

Severance pay

A qualifying worker with at least one year of service generally receives 30 days of the relevant final wage for each year of service, with proportional payment for extra time. Include relevant regular monetary benefits in the wage used.

Qualifying exits include:

• Termination by the employer, other than on the specified serious-misconduct grounds
• Resignation by the employee for statutory just cause
• Military service
• Qualifying retirement
• A woman's resignation within one year of marriage
• Death

Ordinary resignation does not automatically qualify.

Notice is calculated separately from severance where it is payable. Check the applicable law and any collective agreement for the notice period that applies to each employee.

Final pay

When employment ends, pay the wages and monetary rights due and settle unused earned annual leave at the final wage. Calculate notice and severance separately where they are payable.

If you want a release of employment claims, the conditions are strict. It must be in writing, name the type and amount of each claim, be signed at least one month after termination, and involve full payment through a bank. That rule is not permission to hold back ordinary final wages for a month.

Collective agreements

A collective agreement can improve pay, leave, notice and other terms, and can change permitted probation or working-time arrangements. Under Law 6356, a union generally needs at least 1% of the industry's workers plus more than half the workplace's workers, or 40% across the enterprise, to gain bargaining authority. There is no general rule that a union becomes authorised with only 10% of one workplace. Check whether an agreement covers your employees and how the coverage and solidarity-contribution rules apply.