El Salvador
Min. wage
(x13 payments)
$408.80 /mo
About the minimum wage
Employer tax
~17.25%
Understand employer tax
Annual leave
15 days
Learn about annual leave
Notice period
No statutory minimum
Termination and notice info
Updated
Sep 2026
The default written employment contract under the Labor Code, for ongoing work with no end date; any contract for permanent-nature tasks is deemed indefinite.
Only valid for work that is temporary by nature (seasonal or specific projects); otherwise the relationship is treated as indefinite.
Standard day work is 8 hrs/day up to 44 hrs/week (night work 7 hrs/day, 39/week); overtime paid at a 100% premium (double the hourly rate), and holiday work at double pay.
The Labor Code allows a maximum 30-day probation period, during which either party may end the contract without liability or stated cause.
A mandatory Christmas bonus (aguinaldo) scaled by tenure: 15 days' salary for 1-3 years of service, 19 days for 3-10 years, and 21 days for 10+ years, paid by December 20.
Job titles not specifically regulated, but contracts must state the type of work or services to be performed, and duties should match the agreed role.
Employers pay ISSS health/maternity 7.5% (on salary capped at $1,000/month), AFP pension 8.75% (2022 pension reform), and INSAFORP training levy 1% (employers with 10+ staff) — roughly 17.25% total.
Employees pay ISSS 3% (capped at $1,000/month base) and AFP 7.25% (10.25% total), plus progressive income tax of 0-30% (monthly income up to about $550 exempt).
In addition to statutory leave, employees are entitled to the following statutory benefits:
Payroll contributions in El Salvador fund three main schemes:
Work-accident and occupational-disease coverage is provided through ISSS as part of the employer's 7.5% contribution — there is no separate private workers' compensation insurance requirement. ISSS pays medical care and disability subsidies for work-related injuries, and employers must comply with the Occupational Health and Safety Law (Decreto 254), including risk-prevention programs and workplace committees.
Employees dismissed without just cause are entitled to an indemnity of 30 days of basic salary per year of service (proportional for partial years). For this calculation the daily salary is capped at four times the legal daily minimum wage. No severance is due for justified dismissal or resignation, though a separate voluntary-resignation benefit (15 days per year, capped at 2x minimum wage, after 2+ years of service) exists under the Voluntary Resignation Law.
The aguinaldo (Christmas bonus) is mandatory and must be paid between December 12 and December 20 each year. It is scaled by tenure: 15 days of salary for 1-3 years of service, 19 days for 3-10 years, and 21 days for 10 or more years; employees with less than one year receive a proportional amount.
P.S. our team speaks multiple languages and we'd love to chat in your preferred language if requested.
Your employee's hours, time off, holidays, bonuses, and commissions are automatically calculated into payroll. RemoFirst will invoice you in either US Dollars (USD), Euros (EUR), British Pounds (GBP), Canadian Dollars (CAD), Australian Dollars (AUD), or Singapore Dollars (SGD) around the 15th of each month to make sure your employees are paid on time. To make it even easier, you can summarize your entire global team's salaries to aggregate them into one payment (instead of many individual payments).
Unlike full-time employees, contractors work on projects with multiple companies at a given time and are technically self-employed. Full-time employees are solely focused on their employer and usually receive benefits (such as health insurance, equity or stock options, and time off) as an additional form of compensation. While it can be cheaper to work with international contractors instead of paying benefits to a full-time employee, you run the risk of misclassification. It's recommended to work with an EOR for contractor onboarding and payments, so you can know that your international contractors are paid compliantly and on time.
Whenever the employee or employer has a question about, or anything else related to international employment, they can speak with our customer support team to get answers from our team of experts.
