Government, Social Services

The Salvadoran Social Security Institute was created in 1949 to provide national health, accident, unemployment, old-age, and life insurance. Compulsory contributions from workers, employers, and the government support the program, which in theory covers most industrial workers and employees. The system is far from comprehensive, however, and El Salvador’s millions of poor lack adequate medical care, housing, education, and other basic services. The deterioration of social services during the civil war of the 1980s left much of the Salvadoran population in desperate straits. Although economic recovery has been expected to ease this situation, by the mid-1990s there was little evidence of significant improvement in health or welfare for the majority. Such hardships continue to encourage poor Salvadorans to leave the country.