The Banco de Desarrollo de El Salvador (BANDESAL) as administrator of the Fideicomiso para la Recuperación Económica de las Empresas Salvadoreñas (FIREMPRESA) enabled this day the platform to apply for this subsidy. Applicants must be registered as employers with the Instituto Salvadoreño del Seguro Social, and have a maximum of up to 100 employees earning the minimum wage. Likewise, support will be provided not only for the salary, but also for the additional payments that must be made as employer payments to the social security and pension fund administrators.

318 applications have been submitted as of 8:30am today, the first day of the opening of the website.

A total of US$100 million will be available on the platform for employers of all sizes seeking to cover 100% of the approved minimum wage.

"This day we open the site and enable FIREMPRESA to deliver this subsidy... you must submit general information, information that you already have in your companies", said the President of BANDESAL, Juan Pablo Durán.

Authorities have informed that some 15,000 MSMEs, which represent 95% of the country's companies, will be eligible for the subsidy, which will be delivered through Banco de Desarrollo de El Salvador (BANDESAL).

On the web site: www.firempresa.gob.sv, under the tab "Subsidio al salario mínimo", employers may register and provide general information on each of their companies. This includes the name of the company, the employer number, the Tax Identification Number (NIT) of the legal representative, the type of account and number where the funds are to be deposited, and an e-mail address.

"Another great piece of good news is that you will not have to go to the banks to withdraw this subsidy, but it will be deposited directly from the account of the Banco Central de Reserva (BCR) to the accounts left on the site by each of you from your companies, whether natural or legal persons", added Durán.

The deposits will start to be received from the second week of September 2021. As the subsidy is for one year, the subsidy is from august 2021 to july 2022.