Business owners on Thursday filed an objection to the north’s new minimum wage, which is set to be raised to a gross figure 34,070TL (€975) at the end of the month.

As a result, the north’s ‘labour ministry’s’ objections board will be convened on Friday by ‘minister’ Sadik Gardiyanoglu.

With Friday being the last day of the month, the final decision will be published in the ‘government gazette’ on Friday evening after the end of the objections board’s meeting.

The new minimum wage was announced earlier this month following a majority decision of the minimum wage determination commission. The gross figure is now just €25 lower than the Republic’s minimum wage.

The new net figure of 29,640TL (€848) is €37 lower than that of the Republic, where the gross minimum wage is €1,000 and the net minimum wage is €885.

As well as being just shy of that of the Republic, the north’s new gross minimum wage is higher than that of 13 European Union member states, including Greece.

Cyprus Turkish Employers’ Union representative Cengiz Alp saying he had voted against the new minimum wage at the commission’s meeting, saying business owners are “not guilty for inflation”.