Bilingual Pay Differential

Answers

• Posted at 12:00AM on Jan 1, 2002

  We pay $.50 per hour additional and are located in Tampa, FL. Good luck. -- Leslie Martin

• Posted at 12:00AM on Jan 1, 2002

  I can give you some information on bilingual issues but not from a USA point of view, as we are located in the heart of Europe: Brussels (in the state of Belgium).

  We do not pay people differently with bilingual skills, but when we hire the agents they receive a salary that is in line with their competencies. So, yes, indirectly we do honor those skills. We also offer language skills paid by the company. Agents that follow these courses and become bilingual (or tri/quadrilingual in Belgium) are not paid more. -- Geert D'Eer, Contact Center Manager Antwerp

• Posted at 12:00AM on Jan 1, 2002

  I do not have specific research about this subject, just experience. In all the call centers I have managed, there has always been a pay differential for bilingual reps. This rages anywhere from $0.25 and hour to $0.75. I have talked to a lot of people, as well, and I think the average is about $0.50. I hope this helps. -- David Zimmerle, Fulfillment Plus

• Posted at 12:00AM on Feb 1, 2002

  We pay 5% more for bilingual agents ($.58/hour) and they anwer calls on both a separate language line and the normal English member line.
  -- Nancy A. Bickford

• Posted at 12:00AM on Mar 1, 2002

  We pay $.50 per hour more for bilingual agents. -- Sharon Henderson

• Posted at 12:00AM on Mar 1, 2002

  According to a leading Call Center Compensation Survey of 74 centers with Spanish-speaking agents, employees were given a $1.02 per hour premium for their language skills. This constituted 9.6% of their base pay of $11.33. Other language skill premiums include $1.14 per hour for Chinese, $1.17 per hour for Japanese, $1.21 per hour for French, $1.20 per hour for German, $1.15 per hour for Arabic, and $1.20 per hour for Other. -- Rebecca Oettinger, The Segal Company

• Posted at 12:00AM on Mar 1, 2002

  We are located in St. Louis, Missouri and pay fifty cents more per hour for bilingual agents.

• Posted at 12:00AM on Apr 1, 2002

  We used to offer $1.00 an hour differential until we took a hard look at the actual volume of Spanish calls received. Though it seemed like a lot, the Spanish calls were actually less than 1% of our total calls. If you do offer a differential I would highly recommend interviewing those individuals in Spanish as well as English. We found that there are several levels of quality with individuals that speak Spanish, ranging from professional to casual. And if you monitor, is there someone available that will be able to monitor the Spanish calls? -- Susan L.

• Posted at 12:00AM on Sep 1, 2003

  Our call center is a union shop. The contract provides a lump sum differential for Spanish-speaking reps of $30 per week. We have two supervisors who are fluent in Spanish who participate in the interview process. We have found that it is very important to test the language level of incoming candidates.

  Some candidates have been de-selected because they could not converse professionally, they only spoke slang or an English/Spanish combo.