Severance for dismissal without cause in El Salvador: 30 days a year, capped by law
Estimates only, not financial advice. What you type stays on your device. Checked against sources on 15 Oct 2026.Severance in El Salvador under article 58 of the Código de Trabajo is 30 days of basic salary for each year of service, in proportion for part of a year, and never less than 15 days. No salary above four daily minimum wages counts, so in commerce and services the most a year can give is $1,612.80.
2026 · Rates and rules read from the sources listed on this page (the earliest on 15 Oct 2026); they may have changed since.
Type the monthly basic salary in dollars.
Enter the date the job started and the date of the dismissal.
Pick the sector: its daily minimum wage sets the cap of four minimum wages a day.
Read the severance, the years and days counted, whether the cap or the 15-day floor applied, and the vacation owed.
This calculator works out the indemnización a worker on an open-ended contract is owed when dismissed without justified cause, from the monthly salary and the two dates, and adds the proportional vacation pay owed on the same dismissal.
The rule. Article 58 of the Código de Trabajo pays the basic salary of 30 days for each year of service and the proportional part of an unfinished year. The calculator counts complete years from the start date to each anniversary (article 179) and adds the remaining days divided by 365. A monthly salary divided by 30 is the day's pay, so each year is worth one month's salary. The total is never below 15 days of salary.
The cap. The second paragraph of article 58 says no salary may exceed four times the daily legal minimum wage in force for this calculation. Decreto Ejecutivo No. 11 of 2025, in force since 1 June 2025, sets the daily minimum at $13.44 in commerce, services, industry, sugar mills and agro-industry, $13.227 in textile maquila, $10.035 in coffee mills and sugar-cane harvest, and $8.96 in farming and coffee harvest. Four times $13.44 is $53.76 a day, or $1,612.80 per year of service. The Code names the daily minimum; some guides multiply the monthly minimum by four instead and get $1,635.20.
Vacation. Article 187 adds the vacation days in proportion to the time worked since the last anniversary: 15 days plus 30% times that share. The cap does not apply to it.
What it leaves out. Fixed-term contracts (article 59), the proportional aguinaldo (use the Aguinaldo Calculator), unpaid salary, income tax and collective agreements that give more. A dismissal within a 30-day trial period set in the contract owes nothing (article 28).
The figures are estimates, not legal advice. Everything runs in your browser; nothing you type is sent anywhere.
Article 58 of the Código de Trabajo pays 30 days of basic salary for each year of service and the proportional part of an unfinished year, with at least 15 days. With a monthly salary, 30 days of salary is one month, so four and a half years on $600 a month come to about $2,700.
No salary above four times the daily legal minimum wage counts. Since 1 June 2025 the daily minimum in commerce, services and industry is $13.44, so the cap is $53.76 a day and a year of service gives at most 30 x $53.76 = $1,612.80. Other sectors have lower minimums and lower caps.
Those sites multiply the monthly minimum wage of $408.80 by four. Article 58 says no salary may exceed four times the daily minimum wage, and the decree sets that at $13.44, so this calculator uses 30 x 4 x $13.44 = $1,612.80 per year. The difference is $22.40 a year.
The proportional part of 30 days for the time worked, but never less than 15 days of salary. On $500 a month after two months, the proportional part is $83.56, so the 15-day minimum of $250.00 applies instead.
A worker on an open-ended contract dismissed without justified cause (article 58). A fixed-term contract pays the salary for the rest of the term, up to the same amount (article 59). Within a 30-day trial period set in the contract, either side may end it without cause and nothing is owed (article 28).
The vacation days in proportion to the time worked since the last anniversary (article 187), which this calculator adds, and the proportional aguinaldo for a dismissal before 12 December (article 202), which the Aguinaldo Calculator works out. Salary earned and not yet paid is owed as well.
Rates and rules change; check the source before you rely on a figure.
Still stuck? Ask about El Salvador Severance Pay Calculator (Indemnización) and anybody who knows can answer. No account needed.
Same job, other tools: Vacaciones Proporcionales El Salvador Calculator – The proportional vacation pay owed in El Salvador when a job ends · Salary After Tax Calculator – Old regime or new regime, and what each leaves you every month · Notice Period Buyout Calculator – What an employer recovers for the notice days you do not serve.
On the related tools: PF Calculator – What your PF account will hold when you retire.
More for El Salvador: all 3 El Salvador calculators.