TürkiyeTL;DR: For employees, no: statutory salary in Turkey is paid in lira, to a Turkish bank account. For contractors, yes: they can invoice you in USD and keep the money in dollars. On Shor, contractors hold their earnings in USD and withdraw to lira when they choose, with a flat disclosed 2% FX applied only when money actually converts, for $19/month per contractor.
Turkey has one of the deepest engineering talent pools in Europe's time zones, and after watching the lira lose most of its value in a few short years, Turkish professionals think about their rate in hard currency whether or not you pay them in one. Here's what's allowed, and how to set it up.
The short answer
It depends entirely on one thing: is this person an employee or a contractor?
Employees: no. Turkish statutory salary is paid in lira (TRY) to a Turkish bank account, on a monthly payroll. Turkey's rules on foreign-currency contracts between residents have shifted repeatedly over the past decade, and our compliance data on Turkey is thinner than for our core markets, so treat lira payroll as the default and put anything beyond it in front of Turkish counsel first.
Contractors: yes. An independent contractor invoices you as a business. That invoice can be denominated in USD, and how the contractor holds or converts the money afterward is their decision. In Turkey, after the last few years, many choose dollars.
One warning before anything else: the classification has to be real. Reclassifying someone who works like an employee as a contractor so you can pay them in dollars trades a currency problem for a much more expensive legal one.
Why USD pay matters in Turkey
Turkey is coming out of one of the worst inflation runs of any major remote-talent market, and the recovery is real but incomplete.
Official inflation peaked at 85.5% in October 2022, a 24-year high, eased, then climbed to a second peak of 75.45% in May 2024 before the current disinflation took hold. As of July 2026, the Turkish Statistical Institute (TURKSTAT) reports annual inflation of 31.75%, the second straight month of cooling, a reading Bloomberg notes still tests the central bank's forecasts. An independent research group puts the same figure above 50%, a gap that itself tells you something about how much trust in official price data, and the lira behind it, has to be rebuilt.
The currency moved the same way. One dollar bought around 8 lira in September 2021 and nearly 19 by the end of 2022, and the slide has continued more slowly since. So the honest framing is not "Turkey is in crisis today". It's that inflation is cooling but still above 30%, and Turkish professionals have lived through enough lira episodes that they price the risk in. A USD-denominated rate holds its purchasing power while the contractor decides when to convert. That's a stability point, not an investment strategy.
For you as the employer, the flip side is cost predictability: a USD rate means your books see the same number every month, instead of catch-up conversations that are really inflation adjustments.
Paying employees in Turkey: what the law requires
If you hire a Turkish employee (directly or through an employer of record), salary is paid in lira to a Turkish bank account, with registered payroll and social contributions, on a monthly cycle. Turkey has had rules restricting foreign-currency denomination in contracts between Turkish residents since 2018, with exceptions that have been amended more than once. We won't summarize them here because the details move; if someone proposes a dollar-linked salary structure for a Turkish employee, have a Turkish employment lawyer look at your specific case before you rely on it. We are not that lawyer, and this page is not legal advice.
What compliant employers actually do instead:
- Pay salary in lira, index reviews to the dollar. Set an expectation that compensation is reviewed against a USD reference on a fixed schedule. At Turkey's current inflation, that schedule needs to be frequent; local employers commonly adjust more than once a year.
- Keep the adjustment cadence honest. A once-a-year review in a 30%+ inflation environment is a real-terms pay cut by month six.
This keeps you inside the law while addressing the thing the employee actually cares about: their purchasing power.
Paying contractors in Turkey in USD
For genuine contractors, USD pay is straightforward, and it's where most US companies hiring Turkish talent land. On Shor it works like this:
- Contractors invoice in USD or lira, their choice. Contracts, W-8BEN collection, and invoicing are built in.
- The money stays in USD. No forced conversion on arrival. Most platforms convert a "USD payment" to lira the moment it lands, which protects the contractor for exactly zero days. Holding is the feature.
- They withdraw to lira when they choose, over local rails. This month's bills in lira today, the rest staying in dollars until they need it.
- Conversion costs a flat disclosed 2%, shown before the money moves, and only when money actually converts.
- For you: $19/month per contractor. No setup fees, month-to-month.
The deeper version of the employer case (retention, cost predictability, why holding matters more than denomination) is in our guide to paying international contractors in USD.
FAQ
Can I pay employees in Turkey in USD? No. Statutory salary is paid in lira to a Turkish bank account, with registered payroll. Turkey's rules on foreign-currency contracts have shifted repeatedly, so anything beyond lira payroll needs Turkish counsel. The compliant alternative is lira salary with frequent, USD-referenced compensation reviews.
Can I pay contractors in Turkey in USD? Yes. Independent contractors can invoice a foreign client in USD, and after the lira's last few years many prefer to. On Shor they invoice in USD, keep the money in dollars, and withdraw to lira when they choose.
Do Turkish contractors have to convert to lira as soon as they're paid? Not on Shor. There is no forced conversion on arrival; the contractor holds their balance in USD and converts on their own timing, at a flat disclosed 2% shown before the money moves.
Does paying a Turkish contractor in USD cost me more? No. It's the same $19/month per contractor, and the 2% FX applies only when the contractor converts to lira, which is their choice and effectively their side of the transaction.