I plan on asking for bilingual pay.

Anonymous

October 1,2023 at 3:15PM UTC

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I plan on asking for bilingual pay.

I work for a large organization with various departments and divisions. I often speak Spanish and translate documents to accomodate our customers needs. I am happy to be able to do this. I am not compensated for this. There are employees in other positions that are.

How can I bring this up? Should I? Has anyone ever asked and been denied? If I do ask will more be expected of me? How much should I ask for? I just want to hear about others experiences.

My prior employer paid a 5% bonus on top of your base salary which was great.

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AnonymousOctober 1,2023 at 6:29PM UTC
One thing to consider, is if you are given a bi-lingual bonus/salary accommodation, you will likely be expected to accommodate all Spanish-speaking clients, even if they are bi-lingual or do not require translation services. Accommodating in a pinch when there isn't anyone else to translate, and the client is struggling with English is one thing, but your bump in pay, bilingual services will likely be expanded, which could put you in a "specialist" type of role (possibly a title change as well). This could be good or bad, depending on how you see it. If you would like that sort of role, it could be good. It could also limit your opportunities within the organization, as it also makes you somewhat indispensable, depending on how easy bi-lingual people can be found for your role.
AnonymousOctober 3,2023 at 5:43PM UTC
In case you work in an organization that provides public services (healthcare, education, other types of public community-facing sectors) companies are REQUIRED to provide language access, by law. But, by qualified people.
If you can figure out if your employer falls under this, you likely can help solve a problem they might not know they have, and then ask for a change in category along with a salary bump.
I work for a large hospital and it depends on the department, but bilingual employees who pass a test are given at least 5% more.
There are different levels of bilingualism and many people overestimate their language proficiency.
AnonymousOctober 4,2023 at 4:05AM UTC
Ask your manager what the process is to be compensated for providing translation services on top of your regular job. If they won't compensate you for it then don't do the extra work for free.
AnonymousOctober 5,2023 at 10:41PM UTC
How long have you been in this employ? You might just send notice to your manager you have not had your pay adjusted for bilingual work . Do not ask for any particular amount, see what they come up with. They may offer more than you ask for. Do some research and see what the going rate is. For the work you are doing, 5% seems low. Ask for more