Before hiring employees, you must understand which employee benefits are essential to provide. These legal requirements affect payroll, leave management, working-time administration, social security, and potential termination costs.
The real challenge is separating what employers have to provide by law from optional perks. These could include private health insurance, meal allowances, pension top-ups, and bonuses.
This guide explains the key statutory benefits, who pays for them, how they affect total employment costs, and what employers must do to stay compliant.
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Before hiring employees, you must understand which employee benefits are essential to provide. These legal requirements affect payroll, leave management, working-time administration, social security, and potential termination costs.
The real challenge is separating what employers have to provide by law from optional perks. These could include private health insurance, meal allowances, pension top-ups, and bonuses.
This guide explains the key statutory benefits, who pays for them, how they affect total employment costs, and what employers must do to stay compliant.
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Alp Atasoy
Sales and Business Development Consultant
Statutory benefits in Türkiye are employment rights, protections, insurance coverage, leave, and payments that an employer must provide, finance, deduct, report, or facilitate under Turkish law.
Social security and health insurance, paid annual leave, family-related leave, public holiday entitlements, working-time protections, notice periods, and severance pay fall under these benefits.
As you know, employers in Türkiye are responsible for a range of statutory benefits. However, employers don’t pay every entitlement directly. Some benefits, like sickness and maternity income replacements, are paid through SGK. Notice and severance are also conditional.
Benefit | Is It Mandatory? | Who Pays? | Eligibility | Main Entitlement | Employer Action |
Social security | Yes | Employer + employee | Employment covered under Article 4/1(a), subject to exceptions | Pension, disability, survivors’, short-term-risk, and related protection | Register the employee before work starts and deduct, declare, and remit premiums |
Health insurance | Yes through SGK | Employer + employee | Subject to general health-insurance conditions | Access to SGK-financed healthcare, subject to coverage and co-payment rules | Register correctly and pay general health-insurance premiums |
Annual leave | Yes | Employer | At least one year of service, including probation | 14, 20, or 26 working days depending on service | Maintain leave records and pay leave correctly |
Sick leave | Conditional cash benefit | Primarily SGK; employer pay depends on contract, CBA, or policy | Valid medical report and applicable contribution conditions | SGK temporary-incapacity benefit, normally from day three | Process medical reports and absence documentation |
Maternity leave | Yes | SGK income replacement where eligible; employer administers leave | Insured employee meeting statutory conditions | 24 weeks from 1 May 2026, normally 8 before and 16 after birth | Protect the leave and process SGK documentation |
Paternity leave | Yes | Employer | Employee whose spouse gives birth | 10 days’ paid leave from 1 May 2026 | Grant paid leave and retain supporting documentation |
Adoption-related leave | Yes, with different rights | Employer for the three-day event leave; longer leave treatment varies | Depends on the type of adoption entitlement | Three paid days plus longer placement-related rights in qualifying cases | Distinguish the three-day leave from longer placement leave |
Nursing leave | Yes | Employer | Female employee with a child under one | 1.5 paid hours per working day | Allow the employee to determine timing and record it as working time |
Public holidays | Yes | Employer | Employees covered by applicable labor rules | Full wage if not worked; one additional daily wage if worked | Record holiday work separately and calculate payroll correctly |
Overtime | Conditional | Employer | Work exceeding applicable weekly thresholds | Generally 150% of normal hourly pay above 45 hours | Obtain consent where required and maintain time records |
Weekly rest | Yes | Employer | Completion of the applicable work schedule | At least 24 continuous hours of weekly rest | Schedule and pay weekly rest correctly |
Notice | Conditional | Party terminating without just cause | Indefinite-term employment and non-immediate termination | Two, four, six, or eight weeks | Give notice or calculate notice compensation |
Severance | Conditional | Employer | At least one year of service plus a qualifying termination | 30 days’ capped gross all-in wage per service year | Verify eligibility, calculation base, ceiling, and termination reason |
Automatic private-pension enrolment (OKS) | Yes for eligible employees | Employee | Turkish citizens and Blue Card holders who have not turned 45 by the first day of the enrolment year; employees aged 45 or over may join on request | At least 3% of SGK-assessable earnings is transferred to the employee’s pension account | Enrol eligible employees, deduct the contribution, transfer it by the statutory deadline, and process opt-out or suspension requests |
An institution administers the social security system in Türkiye. Employers are responsible for many legal obligations. Below is a brief overview of how social security works in Türkiye.
SGK stands for Sosyal Güvenlik Kurumu, or the Social Security Institution. Employees working under a service contract are normally insured under Article 4/1(a) of Law No. 5510, subject to limited exceptions.
Employers have to notify SGK before employees begin covered employment. SGK then administers the employee’s social insurance and general health insurance coverage.
SGK coverage broadly includes:
For a standard private-sector employee insured under Article 4/1(a), the following rates apply from January 1, 2026, before incentives or reductions.
Contribution | Employer | Employee |
SGK insurance | 21.75% | 14% |
Unemployment insurance | 2% | 1% |
Total statutory contributions | 23.75% | 15% |
The total combined statutory contribution is 38.75%. The employer’s standard total is 23.75%, while 15% is withheld from the employee’s gross pay. Note that these rates apply before any available incentives or reductions.
Employers should:
Türkiye provides several forms of statutory leave. These could include annual leave, sickness-related absence, maternity and paternity leave, adoption-related leave, nursing leave, and certain event-based leave rights.
Employees generally become entitled to paid annual leave after completing one year of service. The probation period also counts toward this one-year period.
Length of Service | Minimum Annual Leave |
1 to 5 years, including the 5th year | 14 working days |
More than 5 years but less than 15 years | 20 working days |
15 years or more, including the 15th year | 26 working days |
Please note that employees aged 18 or younger and those aged 50 or older must receive at least 20 days of annual leave.
Ordinary sickness in Türkiye should not be described simply as “employer-paid sick leave.” The employer and SGK have different responsibilities.
Employer responsibility: Employers should accept and process a valid medical-rest report, record the absence, and submit or confirm required information through the SGK system.
SGK responsibility: For ordinary sickness, SGK temporary incapacity benefits normally begin on the third day. The employee generally needs at least 90 days of short-term insurance contributions during the previous year and a valid medical report.
From May 1, 2026, maternity leave for private-sector employees increased from 16 to 24 weeks. The normal structure is eight weeks before birth and 16 weeks after birth. In multiple pregnancies, two additional prenatal weeks apply.
From May 1, 2026, a private-sector employee whose spouse gives birth is entitled to 10 days of paid paternity leave. The employer bears the wage cost, and the leave should not be deducted from annual leave.
Türkiye provides several separate adoption-related rights. Employees receive three days of paid leave when adopting a child. In addition, one adopter, or one adopting spouse, of a child under three may receive eight weeks of placement-related leave beginning when the child is handed over. Qualifying adopters may also have rights to unpaid leave, half-time work, or later part-time work.
A female employee with a child under one year old is entitled to 1.5 hours of paid nursing leave per working day. The employee decides when and in how many parts the leave will be used, and the time counts as working time.
Türkiye also provides several shorter event-based statutory leave entitlements.
Leave Type | Entitlement | Paid? | Main Condition |
Marriage | 3 days | Yes | Employee’s marriage |
Bereavement | 3 days | Yes | Death of the employee’s mother, father, spouse, sibling, or child |
Adoption event leave | 3 days | Yes | Employee adopts a child |
Paternity | 10 days from 1 May 2026 | Yes | Employee’s spouse gives birth |
Disabled or chronically ill child’s treatment | Up to 10 days per year | Yes | Medical documentation required; only one working parent may use it |
Foster-family placement | 10 days from 1 May 2026 | No | Employee becomes a foster parent and requests leave after placement |
Yes. Employees are entitled to their full daily wage for national and general public holidays even if they do not work. If an employee works on a public holiday, they are entitled to one additional daily wage.
For payroll purposes, employers should treat holiday work separately:
Turkish law also provides mandatory working-time protections that can affect payroll costs and employer compliance.
The standard maximum working time is 45 hours per week. Hours may be distributed unevenly by agreement, but ordinary daily working time generally cannot exceed 11 hours.
Work exceeding 45 hours per week is generally treated as overtime and compensated at 150% of the normal hourly wage.
Where the contractual workweek is below 45 hours, work above the contractual limit but up to 45 hours is generally treated as extra work and compensated at 125% of the normal hourly wage. Overtime normally requires employee consent and is capped at 270 hours per year.
Employees are entitled to at least 24 continuous hours of weekly rest within a seven-day period.
An employee’s gross salary is only one part of the total employment cost. Employers may also need to account for many other expenses. A simple way to think about employer cost is:
Gross salary
Assumptions:
Cost Component | Monthly Amount |
Gross salary | TRY 33,030.00 |
Employer SGK insurance at 21.75% | TRY 7,184.03 |
Employer unemployment insurance at 2% | TRY 660.60 |
Total employer statutory contributions | TRY 7,844.63 |
Estimated undiscounted employer cost | TRY 40,874.63 |
The total employer statutory contribution is 23.75% before incentives. It brings the estimated undiscounted monthly employer cost to TRY 40,874.63 in this example.
Employers should distinguish benefits required by law from benefits offered voluntarily as part of an employment package.
Benefit | Statutory | Common Optional Benefit |
SGK registration | ✓ | |
Statutory social-security contributions | ✓ | |
SGK general health coverage | ✓ | |
Annual leave | ✓ | |
Maternity, paternity, nursing, and qualifying family leave | ✓ | |
Public-holiday and weekly-rest pay | ✓ | |
Overtime compensation | ✓ | |
Notice and severance where conditions are met | ✓ | |
Private health insurance | ✓ | |
Employer meal allowance | ✓ | |
Employer transport allowance | ✓ | |
Employer-funded private pension top-up | ✓ | |
Performance bonus | ✓ | |
Additional annual-leave days | ✓ | |
Enhanced maternity or sick-pay top-up | ✓ |
Foreign nationals who are legally employed under a service contract in Türkiye generally fall within the Article 4/1(a) social security framework. Yes, they receive the corresponding statutory employment protections.
However, exceptions can apply. For example, employees temporarily posted to Türkiye may remain insured in their home country under a bilateral social security agreement.
There is more to hiring employees in Türkiye than just paying a salary. You have learned what employers have to manage and how time-consuming it can be. That’s why foreign employers partner with FMC Group, and we support areas such as:
To learn more about how we can make your hiring hassle-free, book a free 30-minute consultation call.
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