Minimum wage becomes reality TV
By Selcan Hacaoglu
Associated Press
ISTANBUL, Turkey — In a new twist to reality television, a Turkish show pits two middle-class couples against each other to see who can survive on the country's minimum wage of $84 a month.
To save 35 cents, contestant Engin Ozden walked four hours to and from work each day last month instead of riding the bus.
His competitors, Hikmet and Suzan Kocaibrahimoglu, ate stale bread and sat under a streetlight at night to use less electricity. They each lost about 20 pounds.
Suzan Kocaibrahimoglu, who stopped using deodorant for a month, said: "It is impossible to live on this money. It is a kind of torture."
But the show, televised daily on private Channel D, is reality for hundreds of thousands of Turkish families struggling to make ends meet on a minimum wage that loses value almost every week as the Turkish lira plummets against the dollar. Since February, the lira has lost about half its worth.
Half of the country's 65 million people live on a monthly income of less than $200, far below the poverty line of $474 a month for a family of four.
The couples' televised struggles make them heroes to many Turks, who long felt they were suffering in silence and were being ignored by politicians whom many believe to be corrupt and the cause of the financial crisis.
"They are like one of us, same difficulties, same misery," said Fikri Tektas, a janitor working in a building near the studio.
Hikmet Kocaibrahimoglu said he received dozens of phone calls thanking him for dramatizing the nation's struggle. People also approached him in the street during the contest to shake his hand.
They say "we are supporting you because you are showing our difficulties," he said.
The television station says the show, which is broadcast at midnight, is among the country's most popular, but refuses to release any figures on viewership, saying it is a trade secret.
August's competition was the second installment of the show. The July contestants tied.
As part of the daily 30-minute show, the two couples live in apartments filled with cameras and microphones. When they go out for work, a camera crew follows them.
Both couples in the August contest bought stale bread for 3 1/2 cents a loaf, one-third of the regular price. They carried free water in buckets from a nearby mosque to save on water bills. Their phones would ring constantly with relatives and friends calling to offer words of support, but the couples never made outgoing calls.
Keeping to the image of a normal life, contestants are required to buy a newspaper each day and watch a movie and read a book during the contest. They are not allowed to accept discounts.
"It is really difficult and requires lots of sacrifice," said Kocaibrahimoglu during the last week of the contest. Even a 17-cent ice-cream cone was a luxury for him.
Turkey is a conservative, overwhelmingly Muslim country, so competing couples must be extremely careful not to kiss in front of the cameras, which are everywhere except the bathrooms.
Kocaibrahimoglu is a finance manager at a private company. His wife does not work outside the home.
Ozden owns a restaurant; his wife works at a bank.
Both couples competing in August were middle class, earning about six times the minimum wage.
Each month, the couple that spends the least money without exceeding the minimum wage will win a car, $17,250 in cash, and a one-week trip in Europe. The show ended Thursday, but the winner would not be announced until today.
"They are lucky. Most Turks are stuck with minimum wage for life, and there is no award awaiting them," said Menekse Yucel, an unemployed secretary looking for a job.
