2023 Laws of Puerto Rico › TITLE TWO - Legislature (§§ 1 — 1015) › Chapter 1 - Legislative Assembly and its Members (§§ 1 — 37) › § 28 - Salaries and emoluments to members—Annual salary

As of January 2, 2013, every member of the Legislative Assembly shall receive as annual salary that which was in effect at the time of the approval of this act, established after the adjustment made in 2005, and which remained unaltered during the 2009-2012 government administration by virtue of Act No. 115-2008. Likewise, the President and Speaker, Vice-presidents, Floor Leaders of all political parties, and the Chairpersons of the Committees on Ways and Means and on Government of the Senate of Puerto Rico and of the House of Representatives shall continue to receive an annual salary equal to the one established after the adjustment made in 2005. No legislation that increases the salaries of the members of the Legislative Assembly shall take effect until the expiration of the term of the Legislative Assembly that approved it pursuant to the provisions of Section 11 of Article VI of the Constitution of Puerto Rico.
In order to fix the total annual salary, the Planning Board of Puerto Rico shall certify to the respective presiding officers of each Body, no later than the 15th of November of the last year of the legislative four-year term, the variation in the general consumer price index during the previous four (4) fiscal years. The salary corresponding to the following four (4) year term shall be determined on the basis of the salary in effect at the time of the revision and on the variation in the general consumer price index as prepared by the Department of Labor and Human Resources and certified by the Board. Provided, That the Planning Board shall issue the first of these certifications on time so that the first adjustment may be effective on January 1, 2005. No adjustment shall be made to the annual adjusted salary of the members of the Legislature during the four (4) year term of the Legislature commencing on January 1, 2009.
Legislators shall perform their official and representative duties on a full-time basis, which shall mean that they shall not render any lucrative work other than their legislative duties from eight thirty in the morning (8:00 [sic] a.m.) to six o’clock in the afternoon (6:00 p.m.) from Monday to Friday, nor during hours when the House or the committees to which he/she belongs are in session, whether during the day or at night, on Saturdays, Sundays or holidays. The violation of this provision shall be exclusively sanctioned by each Legislative Body, pursuant to the provisions established in the Code of Ethics adopted by each Body, by virtue of Sec. 9 of Art. III of the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. Outside income other than that as a legislator shall mean all compensation, salary, remuneration, professional fees, benefits or any other payment or amount a legislator receives or earns for personal services rendered in or for any business, trade, corporation or enterprise, association or entity. The legislator shall not render personal services to any person or entity during the periods stated above, which may cause any of the benefits listed above to be received by the legislator or by his/her family members within a second degree of consanguinity or affinity, and which are not salaries and reimbursements for per diems provided by §§ 27a—37 of this title.
For the purposes of this provision, none of the benefits the legislators receive on account of rent, interests, dividends, child support, community property apportionment, judicial compensation, prizes, legal gift between relatives up to the sixth (6th) degree of consanguinity, capital transactions, copyrights and patents, nor the benefits or compensations from any private insurance or pension plan, nor any income from any joint ownership which the legislator is a party to, nor income from community property in benefit of the legislator, nor benefits or payments for services in the Armed Forces of Puerto Rico or the United States of America, and compensations of insurance systems of the Government of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico whose contributions or premiums have been paid in whole or in part, by the legislator him/herself or a government agency or entity, or any enterprise, business, undertaking, corporation, partnership, estate or any other entity to which the legislator renders or has rendered personal services, shall be deemed to be outside income. Nor shall those payments or amounts or compensation, salaries, remuneration, professional fees, benefits earned or received by the legislator for personal services rendered prior to, but paid to the legislator after the effective date of this act, be deemed to be income other than that as a legislator.
This prohibition does not include additional sources of income acquired with the salary or sources of income allowed to the legislator.
No later than one hundred twenty (120) days after swearing into office, every legislator shall file a sworn statement with the Office of the Secretary or the Office of the Clerk, as appropriate, stating all sources of income, as well as the total amount and nature of any accounts receivable outstanding at the time of swearing into office. Annually after that date any change that may have occurred during the preceding year shall be notified. This sworn statement shall be a public document. No payments for salary or per diems shall be credited to any legislator who has failed to meet the requirement to file said sworn statement by the date established, until it is filed.
The legislators shall only have a net income, other than as a legislator in any calendar year, up to an amount that shall not exceed thirty-five percent (35%) of the total salary they are entitled to in accordance with this section, plus the reimbursements for per diems established in §§ 27a—37 of this title. In the event that a legislator earns other income than that as a legislator, he/she shall refund or return to the corresponding Body the salaries earned during the respective calendar year, in the proportion that such income exceeds the percentage established above, but never more than half (½) of the salaries earned in said year. A legislator may waive the salary appropriated herein through a written communication to the President of the Body to which he/she belongs. In such case, he/she shall receive the salary in effect on January 2, 1989, without being subject to the limitation concerning the legislator outside income.
History —June 19, 1968, No. 97, p. 186, § 1; July 27, 1974, No. 252, Part 2 p. 276, § 1; June 26, 1980, No. 8, p. 929, § 1; June 24, 1989, No. 13, p. 63 § 5; renumbered as § 2 and amended on Dec. 16, 1995, No. 235, § 2; June 10, 1998, No. 81, § 2; July 17, 2008, No. 115, § 1; Aug. 14, 2012, No. 163, § 1.