P.R. Laws tit. 29, § 2033
(a) The farmers shall pay the guaranteed wages subsidized under this chapter from their own pocket, or those fixed directly by contractual obligations, legislation, or decrees, whichever are highest. The Government of Puerto Rico, through the Agricultural Development Administration attached to the Department of Agriculture, shall establish, through regulations, the wage subsidy to be reimbursed to the farmers who meet the provisions of this chapter.
(b) The Secretary shall fix, by regulations, as of the first of July of 1989, the criteria to govern the determination of those farmers who shall be eligible to receive the benefits of this chapter. Among those criteria, the Secretary shall consider the number of hours that the workers must work a week with regard to cultivation or seasonal and non-seasonal agricultural activities, the wage subsidies to be paid, taking into consideration the different manpower needs to produce each kind of crop based on the degree of mechanization achieved by each enterprise and group of entrepreneurs, the wages paid in Puerto Rico for each kind of agricultural activity, and any other factor that should be taken into consideration in the judgment of the Secretary. The Secretary shall fix the wage subsidy rate, based on the production unit or area of land planted, or any other basis determined by regulations, taking into consideration the nature of the agricultural enterprise involved, and its marketing systems, but shall not be less than the sum of two dollars and thirty-two cents ($2.32) as of January 1, 2009, Fiscal Year 2008-2009; two dollars and fifty-two cents ($2.52) as of July 1, 2009, Fiscal Year 2009-2010; and two dollars and seventy-two cents ($2.72) as of July 1, 2010, Fiscal Year 2010-2011, per every hour certified as worked.
(c) The farmers shall be bound to submit to the Secretary or the official on whom he delegates, within the term fixed by regulation, those reports that are requested from them to compute the data on which to base the wage subsidies that the Government of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico is committed to pay to reimburse the additional expenses they must incur to comply with the provisions of this chapter.
(d) The wage subsidy payments shall be paid to the farmers no later than sixty (60) days after the Secretary receives the reports referred to in subsection (c) of this section.
History —Aug. 5, 1989, No. 46, p. 157, § 4, retroactive to July 1, 1989; Aug. 7, 2008, No. 185, § 2, eff. Jan. 1, 2009.