The Value of Being Bilingual

THE VALUE of BEING BILINGUAL Wondering what you can do to make yourself more marketable in today's economy? I. may not be making a career change, but rather learning a new.language. As careers become increasingly globalized, a valuable skill is the ability to speak more than one lan- guage. It can open doors to new opportunities, advance your career or give you a com- petitive edge in a job interview. Check out these statistics on the value of being bilingual: $1,000,000 The average amount of money companies spend to replace employees who can't handle overseas assignments, many of whom fail because of difficulty adjusting to a new language. The additional monthly proficiency pay military personnel on active duty receive if they are bilingual. The increase in hourly pay that bilingual government workers in California earn compared to their monolingual coworkers. $1,000 $0.58 29% • 5% 42% Percentage of companies who said if forced to choose between two *equally qualified candidates they'd choose the candidate who is bilingual. The pay increase bilingual employees at Sprint in Santa Clara county earn regardless of position level. A recent report from the Bureau of Labor and Statistics expects the employment of translators in the United States to increase 42% between 2010 and 2020. 3% 70% 5-20% The percentage of jobs posted on Indeed.com from the 50 most populated cities with "bilingual" in the job description. That's 34,983 bilingual jobs. The percentage of employers that anticipate Spanish proficiency to be a sought after skill within the next 10 years. The average pay differential for a bilingual émployee compared to the position's base pay. FAST-GROWING OCCUPATIONS Salary differences based on bilingualism MONOLINGUAL PROFESSION BILINGUAL $20,000 PERSONAL CARE AIDES $35,000 $25,000 HOME HEALTH AIDES - $31,000 VETERINARY TECHNOLOGISTS AND TECHNICIANS $33,000 $60,000 DIAGNOSTIC MEDICAL $52,000 $66,000 SONOGRAPHERS $48,000 MEDICAL SECRETARIES $62,000 Sources: "Rewarding Workplace Bilingualism" by Amado Padilla , October 2002 http:/jobs.aol.com http://www.empleosch.com http://blog.sparkhire.com http://www.bls.gov http://indeed.com http://www.bilingualerossing.com http://www.iseek.org medtech. http://www.chicagotribune.com http:/www.simplyhired.com/salary-