Pay or Play (POP) Program
The City of Houston's Pay or Play (POP) program was established to level the playing field during the bid process for vendors, as the cost of providing insurance or failure to provide insurance to employees may influence vendor bids for City work. Furthermore, the POP program aims to offset the costs of caring for Houston and Harris County's uninsured residents. The POP program requires City of Houston contractors to either contribute predetermined amounts to the Contractors Responsibility Fund (CRF) for uninsured employees or provide a minimum level of healthcare coverage to their employees.
For more information, see Executive Order 1-7
The Pay or Play Program policy is applicable to contracts with a value of $100,000 or more for prime contractors, and $200,000 or more for subcontractors.
The POP Program applies to:
- All employees of a covered contractor or subcontractor, whether they work on-site or in the office, including contract labor.
- Individuals over the age of 18.
- Employees who work at least 30 hours per week, with any amount of time spent on the City contract or subcontract covered.
The POP Program does not apply to:
- Contracts where 51% or more of the primary purpose is for procurement or purchasing property, leases, goods, supplies, and/or equipment.
- Intergovernmental contracts/interlocal agreements and bulk purchasing.
- Contracts for which the City of Houston has not expended funds, regardless of the funding source.
- Contracts with an approved POP 4 Exemption from OBO, meeting the criteria in Executive Order 1-7, prior to contract award approval.
Pay or Play (POP) Options
Contractors are required to begin complying with POP within 30 days of contract award or start date by submitting their Workforce Audit submissions are submitting into B2GNow - (https://houston.mwdbe.com/ ) Contractors/Subcontractor are required to list all the active and covered employees, whether working on-site, in office, or 1099 Independent Contractors - on the Workforce Employee List in B2Gnow, who perform work on the City of Houston contract.
PAY
“Pay” elect contractors, are required to submit your Weekly Workforce Audits by the end of each month for all hours worked on this City of Houston Contract.
Submission Content:
- TOTAL HOURS: Refer to the hours worked by the employees during the week for Your Company.
- HOURS WORKED: Specifically pertains to the hours worked by the employees during the week for the specific City contract.
Contractors will “Pay” by contributing $1.00 per covered employee per regular hour for work performed under the contract with the City, not to exceed $40.00 per employee.
Payments to the contacting department are due 30 days from receipt of an invoice and can be made via Paymentus. NOTE: Partial payments to POP will not be accepted. Invoices must be paid in full.
The “Pay” contributions go to the Contractors Responsibility Fund (CFR) for their uninsured employees.
The CRF is used to support health programs by providing affordable emergency medical resources, access to health benefits and assistance with finding social and medical services for City contractors and the uninsured. Contractors that do not provide healthcare benefits for their workforce impose a burden on the public and private agencies.
PLAY
For eligibility to participate as a “Play” Contractor/Subcontractors, healthcare benefits must meet or exceed the following a healthcare standards a (single employee) based on these guidelines:
- The employer contributes no less than 75% of the total premium costs per covered employee per month toward the total premium cost; and
- The covered employee contribution, if any amount, will be no greater than 25% of the total monthly premium costs.
Contractors/Subcontractors are required to provide documentary proof that it provides healthcare benefits to each covered employee. (We do not accept healthcare insurance cards as proof of insurance unless the employee is submitting a POP 8 waiver)
For Contractors that do not offer health insurance or provide health insurance that meets POP minimum requirements, will be considered a PAY elect contractor, and whose employees are NOT considered exempt, are required to submit workforce audits in B2GNow on a weekly basis
- Contractors will pay to the City $1.00 for each regular hour of work performed by covered employees, including covered employees of covered Subcontractors.
POP invoices are generated through the B2GNow website and sent to the email address listed in the vendor's profile. Payments are due within 30 days of receipt and must be completed via the Chase Payment Portal in B2GNow.
Please note that mail-in-check payments are no longer accepted. Vendors may remit payment online via credit card or ACH transfer through the designated portal.
For payment instructions or clarity, contact HCD Pay or Play Coordinators La Quinta Jones at 832-393-6200.
Pay and Play (Both)
A contractor may PAY on behalf of some covered employees and PLAY on behalf of other covered employees; this also applies to subcontractors covered employees.
Exemption
Employees who meet any of the following exemption criteria must complete the POP 8 Employee Waiver Request form to be considered exempt from the POP program:
- Under the age of 18
- Covered by health insurance through their spouse
- Enrolled Medicaid/Medicare
- Declines employer-provided health insurance that meets City of Houston requirements.
For each exempt employee, a POP-8 form must be completed and submitted along with supporting documentation or acceptable proof of insurance. The POP-8 forms must be completed and signed by the employee, and notarized, before submission.
A full list of required documents for the Pay or Play program are available on the City of Houston's Office of Business Opportunity’s website .
Department-Specific Guides:
For more information, contact the department’s Pay or Play Coordinators, LaQuinta Jones, at 832-393-6200.
