Abstract
This article examines the formation of social security in Brazil from the First Republic to the Vargas era, discussing funding, social conflict, occupational segmentation, and state intervention. Drawing on documentation from the National Labor Council, reports by the Ministry of Labor, Industry and Commerce and contemporary legislation, it argues that Brazilian social security took shape in a selective and corporatist manner, geared toward stabilizing segments of formal urban labor. This design resulted from organized working-class pressure, employer resistance to regulation and state mediation, rather than from a unilateral concession by the public authorities. At the same time, the state kept large contingents of the working population outside protection, through an uneven and sector-specific exclusion that affected rural workers, domestic workers, women and the Black population in distinct ways. The article examines the Eloy Chaves Law (1923), Pension Funds, Retirement Institutes,
financing mechanisms and the political economy of social protection, revealing the link
between social security, labor discipline, and the reproduction of the labor force.