Pay equity certification

It is, on one hand, the Equal Pay Compliance Certification granted by DTRH’s Pay Equity Programme; and, on the other, the pay-equity policy certification requirement Act 61-2017 imposed on anyone wishing to be in the Single Bidders Registry to contract with the Government of Puerto Rico.

The Pay Equity Programme is open to employers who wish to take part: DTRH’s page says participation is voluntary. The Single Bidders Registry requirement reaches every bidder seeking to contract with the Government of Puerto Rico through that registry — companies, employers and corporations — and it is through it that the Executive Branch, public corporations and municipalities contract.

• For the Single Bidders Registry: providing evidence and certifying that you have a labour policy of pay equity by reason of sex among people doing comparable work.Verified against the official source
• For the Registry: having completed or begun a self-evaluation of compensation practices, with reasonable progress in eliminating sex-based pay differences in comparable jobs.Verified against the official source
• For DTRH’s Pay Equity Programme: taking part voluntarily. The page publishes no further requirements, and this guide does not invent them.Verified against the official source

• The evidence of the pay-equity policy and the certification Article 42 of the Reorganisation Plan requires, as amended by Act 61-2017. The Act does not specify the format: that is set by the General Services Administration’s regulations.
• The equal-pay self-study file, which is what supports the certification. Its separate guide explains what it should contain under the Secretary’s Uniform Guidelines.

1. 1

   Step 1: Tell the voluntary programme from the mandatory requirement

   DTRH created the Pay Equity Programme (PES) to promote compliance with Act 16-2017, and its page says in as many words that employers’ participation is voluntary, with the benefit of obtaining the Equal Pay Compliance Certification. Act 61-2017 is a different matter: if your company wants to be in the Single Bidders Registry to contract with the Government, the pay-equity policy certification is an entry requirement.

2. 2

   Step 2: What exactly Act 61-2017 requires

   It amended Article 42 of the General Services Administration’s Reorganisation Plan so the Administrator admits to the Registry only those who, besides being of proven moral and economic solvency and not having been convicted of the fraud or embezzlement offences Act 458-2000 lists, "provide evidence and certify that they have a labour policy of pay equity by reason of sex among people doing comparable work, and have completed or begun a self-evaluation of their compensation practices through which they have achieved reasonable progress in eliminating sex-based pay differences in comparable jobs".

3. 3

   Step 3: The self-study guidelines are the same ones

   Act 61-2017 itself ordered the Secretary of Labor to prepare and distribute, within ninety days of its approval, the uniform guidelines governing the self-evaluation programmes designed by the bidding employer or a third party, with reasonable detail and coverage and clear short-term goals according to the bidder’s size and resources. Those are the 10 August 2017 Uniform Guidelines that already have their guide here: the self-study that serves Act 16 is the same one that supports the Registry certification.

4. 4

   Step 4: What non-compliance costs

   Act 61-2017 also touched the Plan’s penalties. Anyone breaching any of its provisions or regulations commits a misdemeanour, with a fine of not less than one thousand dollars and not more than five thousand, plus any other applicable penalty. And for anyone breaching Article 42 specifically — the Registry requirements — it adds the consequence that really hurts a business living on government contracts: exclusion from the Registry for one year. Article 70 gives the Administrator the administrative route to the same result, with an identical one-year exclusion.

5. 5

   Step 5: The programme’s regulation

   DTRH reports that the "Regulation to Administer the Pay Equity Programme" was filed with the Department of State on 13 February 2020, under Act 38-2017, the Uniform Administrative Procedure Act. That regulation’s link on the page redirected and we could not download it, so this guide does not summarise its content: if you are going to apply for the certification, ask the Department for it along with the requirements.

6. 6

   Step 6: What the source does not publish

   Worth saying before anyone plans on invented data: the PES page publishes no application form, no cost, no processing time for the certification, no validity period and nothing about renewal. Nor does it say what evidence the General Services Administration accepts for the Registry. Those questions go directly to DTRH and to the GSA.

The Equal Pay Compliance Certification is handled with the Department of Labor and Human Resources’ Pay Equity Programme. Registration in the Single Bidders Registry, and the evidence filed there, run through the General Services Administration, which administers the Registry under Reorganisation Plan 3-2011.

• Confusing DTRH’s voluntary programme with the Single Bidders Registry’s mandatory requirement.
• Coming to the Registry with the written policy but without the self-evaluation the Act requires alongside it.
• Underestimating the sanction: besides the fine, Article 42 carries exclusion from the Registry for one year.
• Commissioning a generic self-evaluation without considering the company’s size and resources, as the Act asks.
• Treating a cost or a term as published on the PES page when the agency publishes neither.
• Forgetting that public corporations and municipalities also contract through the Registry, not just the Executive Branch.

These are the government pages this guide is based on.

• Departamento del Trabajo y Recursos Humanos (DTRH)

  Departamento del Trabajo

  www.trabajo.pr.gov

• Act 61-2017, requiring a pay-equity policy certification to enter the Single Bidders Registry

  dtrh

  www.trabajo.pr.gov