El Salvador Statutory social-insurance contributions
El Salvador has 2 contribution branches on the calendar held here, in force from 29 Dec 2022. Last checked against the official source on 14 Aug 2026.
Mandatory payroll contributions for an ordinary private-sector employee in El Salvador (SV): employee and employer shares of each statutory system, with the ceiling and the instrument fixing each rate.
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What this value means
WHAT A PAYROLL ENGINE GETS WRONG IN EL SALVADOR. 1. TWO SYSTEMS, TWO ADMINISTRATORS, AND ONLY ONE OF THEM CAPS. ISSS (health) is capped at USD 1,000 of monthly salary; the AFP pension contribution is not. Below USD 1,000 the employee is deducted 3 % + 7.25 % = 10.25 % and the employer pays 7.5 % + 8.75 % = 16.25 %. At USD 5,000 the employee is deducted USD 30 + USD 362.50 = USD 392.50 (7.85 %) and the employer pays USD 75 + USD 437.50 = USD 512.50 (10.25 %). Blended percentages are unusable above the cap. 2. ABOVE THE CAP THE ISSS CHARGE IS A FIXED CASH AMOUNT, NOT A PERCENTAGE. USD 30.00 employee and USD 75.00 employer, flat. Engines that keep applying 3 % and 7.5 % above USD 1,000 over-collect without limit; engines that stop the charge entirely under-collect by a fixed amount. 3. THE PENSION EMPLOYER RATE CHANGED AT THE END OF 2022 AND THE EMPLOYEE RATE DID NOT. The Ley Integral del Sistema de Pensiones took the total from 15 % to 16 % entirely on the employer (7.75 % → 8.75 %). Because the pension base is uncapped, this single point is the largest recent change in Salvadoran employer cost. 4. THE PENSION LAW OF 1996 IS GONE, NOT AMENDED. The Ley Integral repealed the Ley del Sistema de Ahorro para Pensiones outright. Citations to the SAP Law and its articles are citations to a repealed instrument; the operative provisions are in Decreto Legislativo No. 462 and the technical norms issued under it by the Banco Central de Reserva. 5. THE 16 % IS NOT ALL RETIREMENT SAVING. It is divided by law between the individual savings account, the Cuenta de Garantía Solidaria and the AFP commission plus disability-and-survivors insurance. A total-reward statement that credits the whole 16 % to the employee's pot overstates it. 6. THE US DOLLAR IS THE UNIT AND THE THRESHOLDS ARE NOT INDEXED. El Salvador uses the US dollar; the USD 1,000 ISSS cap is a nominal figure that has stood for many years and is eroded by wage growth every year. Expect it to be increasingly binding, and re-check whether it has finally been raised at each review — a change to that single number moves ISSS collections for most of the formal workforce. 7. THERE IS NO SEPARATE OCCUPATIONAL-ACCIDENT TARIFF AND NO UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE. Occupational risk is covered inside the ISSS health regime at the same 7.5 % employer rate for every industry, and El Salvador operates no contributory unemployment benefit. The complete mandatory pair for an ordinary private-sector employee is ISSS plus AFP. SUB-NATIONAL VARIATION: none. Both systems are national and uniform across all departments. WHAT WE DO NOT PUT A NUMBER ON: ANY CEILING ON THE PENSION CONTRIBUTION BASE — deliberately absent rather than asserted as nil. The compilation relied on describes the AFP contribution as running on "the total monthly salary" without a maximum, and no maximum Ingreso Base de Cotización was found in a reachable instrument. Do NOT read this record as confirming that the pension base is uncapped for very high earners; treat it as an open question to be resolved against the Ley Integral del Sistema de Pensiones and the Banco Central technical norms before pricing a senior hire. THE INTERNAL SPLIT OF THE 16 % — not served. The allocation between the individual account, the Cuenta de Garantía Solidaria and the AFP commission and insurance premium is fixed by the Law and by technical norms, and was not verified in this pass. THE INSAFORP VOCATIONAL TRAINING LEVY — not served as a branch. El Salvador has long imposed a training contribution on employers above a headcount threshold, payable alongside ISSS. Its current rate, threshold and even its administering institution have been affected by reorganisation of the training system, and none of that could be verified here. An employer-cost model for El Salvador should establish the current position on it separately; omitting it from this record does not mean it is not payable. PUBLIC-SECTOR AND LEGACY PUBLIC PENSION SCHEMES — outside the scope of a private-sector employee record. The Instituto Salvadoreño de Pensiones administers the public system and the legacy schemes on their own terms. INCOME TAX (ISR) — not a social contribution and not served, although both employee contributions reduce its base. SOURCING CAVEATS: see confidence_note.
Get it programmatically
curl https://latamref.dev/v1/sv/social-contributions
# $0.005 per call — x402 on Base (USDC). No key, no signup.
# History: curl https://latamref.dev/v1/sv/social-contributions/history?from=2020-01-01
# Provenance: curl https://latamref.dev/provenance/sv/social-contributionsOther El Salvador series: Central bank policy rate · VAT (IVA) standard rate · VAT registration threshold · Minimum wage (lowest general statutory floor) · Public holidays · CPI inflation (year-on-year) · Corporate income tax (ISR) standard rate · Withholding tax rates · Statutory legal interest (interés legal) · Personal income tax (ISR) brackets
The same figure elsewhere: Guatemala · Guyana · Honduras · Jamaica · Mexico · all 22