How to get licensed as a contractor in Puerto Rico
Which licence you need in Puerto Rico depends entirely on what you build and who you build it for. There are three separate regimes: DACO for housing construction and development, the trade examining boards for specialities like electrical and plumbing, and the Registro Único de Licitadores for government contracts. There is no single general contractor licence covering all three, which is why people often search, find no contractor board, and wrongly conclude the work is unlicensed.
The three regimes
Housing construction and development. The Oficina del Oficial de Construcción at DACO issues the licencia de urbanizador o constructor under Ley Núm. 130 de 13 de junio de 1967. If you build or develop housing, this is your licence.
Regulated trades. The examining boards under the Departamento de Estado license individual trades — peritos electricistas, maestros y oficiales plomeros, refrigeration and air conditioning technicians, roofing waterproofing, engineers and surveyors, architects. Each has its own board and its own exam.
Government work. Bidding on public contracts requires inscription in the Registro Único de Licitadores at the Administración de Servicios Generales, under Ley 73-2019. This is a registry, not a licence, and carries annual fees.
Permits for the work itself run separately through OGPe under Ley 161-2009.
What catches people out
Ley 130-1967 makes it illegal to engage in the housing construction business without first obtaining the DACO licence. Because there is no contractor board to find, people search, find nothing, and assume none is required — and then build without it. The absence of a board is not the absence of a requirement.
Contractor salary in Puerto Rico
Contracting in Puerto Rico is priced by the job rather than paid as a salary, so what you earn is what you charge for the work.
No official figure exists because there is no salaried grade to publish. DACO licenses builders, the trade boards license individual trades and the Registro Único de Licitadores registers government bidders; none of them sets rates.
Which regime you hold decides the market you can work in: the DACO licence for housing construction and development, a trade board licence for that speciality, or RUL registration for public contracts.
No official scale is published for this role, so treat any single figure you find online as a third-party estimate rather than a rate you can rely on.
Is this the right role for you?
This guide covers how to get in. Whether you should is a different question. Gyfted's career quiz works from how you actually operate — how you handle pressure, structure and other people — rather than from a job title you have already picked.
The best remote job aggregator
Free Personality tests
All of the following assessment tools explore an individual's personality thoroughly, although the Big5 is the gold standard among personality assessments. And what’s key is that are all available for free here: