As increased emphasis is put on the economic advantages of specific coursework, some language educators may feel like the value of courses in the humanities is being undermined. However, a look at workforce needs and trends reveals language ability is not just a nice-to-have; in many cases, it’s a necessity. Industries such as state and local government, healthcare, tourism, finance, law, and technology need multilingual employees. In fact, 1 in 4 US employers report lost business due to lack of language skills among their employees (Making Languages Our Business Report). Beyond facing the need for multilinguals in the workplace, employers in several industries are beginning to offer compensation benefits specifically for bilingual roles.
What Research Tells Us
A recent 2024 survey of 319 corporate and government organizations revealed how bilingual incentive pay is applied across industries. With growing demand for multilingual employees, many organizations recognize the value of financial incentives to reward these critical skills. The insights gathered from this survey shed light on current trends and employer practices, related to bilingual incentive compensation. Here are a few highlights.
Implementation Rates & Incentive Models
Regarding offering incentive pay for bilingual skills, 41% of respondents reported that their organization is implementing a bilingual incentive pay policy/program. While 59% reported their organization is not currently implementing a policy/program, over 50% of these respondents indicated they are interested in learning more about implementing incentive pay.
Organizations reported different ways of offering a pay incentive, with 44% of respondents reporting their organization provides a fixed amount paid in addition to regular salary. Twenty percent of reporting organizations offer a pay increase in the form of a percentage of employee salaries added to each paycheck, and 15% offer a fixed amount attached to specific bilingual job roles. Only 6% reported offering a one-time bonus for bilingual employees, and 3% reported offering a stipend paid solely when bilingual service is offered by an employee.
Bilingual Program Classification & Recruitment
When asked how they identify bilingual employees who might qualify for incentive pay, 83% of respondents said they do not conduct a survey of bilingual employees, while 17% said they do. Companies indicated other means of identifying bilingual skills, such as interviews with other employees who speak the language or using official language certifying tests. However, it was noted that using employees who have an identified language ability to screen other employees for bilingual pay introduces the potential for bias, inequity, and differing ideas of what language ‘proficiency’ or ‘fluency’ means. Legal defensibility is a consideration for many companies where the language ability of candidates filling bilingual roles may have significant implications (such as medical interpretation or court reporting). For this reason, using certified ACTFL tests to identify bilingual talent may be a preferred option.
Most companies indicated bilingual incentive pay is not included in a DEI or similar audit (92% of respondents). However, 8% of respondents reported that bilingual incentive pay is part of DEI or similar audits.
In terms of filling bilingual job positions, 82% of respondents indicated that their organization lists “bilingual preferred” in job requisitions for roles that require bilingual skills, with only 18% of respondents reporting that their organization lists “bilingual required” in such requisitions. While companies may not overtly recruit for bilingual talent, many have a policy to give salary incentives for bilingual ability. Teach your language learners to ask in job interviews if there is a pay differential for certified language ability.
The Impact for Language Educators
Does your school have local businesses partners, a Kiwanis Key Club or Rotary International Club, or technical/trade internship opportunities? Find out if these businesses offer bilingual incentive pay. Connect your students to increased job opportunities by emphasizing the national job market’s need for bilingual employees.
Further, you can help your students identify ways to list their language ability on their resume and talk about it in interviews. Saying “Conversational Spanish” is a lot different than “Certified Intermediate High Proficiency in Spanish” on a job application. Language skills are also tied to resilience, problem solving, and critical thinking. Help your learners emphasize these skills as well as their language ability; practice talking about how being bilingual brings added benefit to a potential employer. Bilingual employees make on average 5-20% more than their peers who speak only one language. Think about your students. For many, that’s the difference between a $15-an-hour job and an $18-an-hour job. Over the span of a career, that adds up to tens of thousands of dollars. How many of your students are going into healthcare, hospitality, or safety services? Those are the very fields where bilingual workers see the biggest premiums. Learning and credential language isn’t just “fluff.” In a tangible way, it adds economic value.
Interested in bringing language credentialing to your program, contact us today.
