ST41 Puerto Rico (December 2007; updated August 2010 - no changes to law)
1.18: USERRA and Other Laws
2.0: Paid Leave

Differential Pay for Puerto Rico Public Employees Called to the Colors

By CAPT Samuel F. Wright, JAGC, USN (Ret.)

Employees of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico and its political subdivisions are entitled to differential pay when they leave their civilian jobs for voluntary or involuntary service in the armed forces to make up any gap between their civilian salaries and their military pay.

The law reads as follows: “All career public employees who are not in probationary period, nor working under temporary contracts, whose net income due to active service in any branch of the United States Armed Forces is less than the net salary earned in their civil employment in any state or municipal government agency or office shall be entitled to receive the difference between their net salary as public employee[s] and the net income received during their active military service” (Laws of Puerto Rico, section 714a).

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