Oregon: Bilingual abilities pay off

Tue Sep 5 13:10:14 UTC 2006

 News Monday, September 4, 2006

Bilingual abilities pay off

People fluent in more than one language are sought after, paid more

THELMA GUERRERO
Statesman Journal

September 4, 2006

Whether it's habla espanol? vy gavarite pa-ruski? or parlez-vous francais?
it pays to be bilingual. Literally. Take Nancy Garcia, for example.
Garcia, who graduated from Willamette University and is working her way
through graduate school, is employed as a medical receptionist at Salem
Hospital's Family Birth Center Clinic. Because she is bilingual and uses
the skill on the job, Garcia, who is fluent in English and Spanish, earns
an average 5 percent more than her counterparts who speak only English.
Her pay differential is part of a new policy the hospital implemented
earlier this year.

"We want to recruit people with bilingual skills because we have a great
need for those folks," said Gayle Evans, the director of human resources
at Salem Hospital. "Our greatest need is Spanish, Russian and sign
language." Being bilingual on the job is as asset that more industries,
including government agencies, are looking for, said Gabriel Escobedo,
associate director for the Pew Hispanic Center in Washington, D.C. As the
Hispanic population increases in the United States, more and more services
are being provided in Spanish, Escobedo said.

In addition, as more U.S. companies enter the global market, more are
seeking employees who speak a foreign language such as Spanish, Escobedo
said. "That gives bilingual Hispanics who are proficient in English and
Spanish a leg up in the work force," he said. A joint study by the
University of Miami, the University of Florida and the Florida Department
of Education found that Hispanics who use their bilingual skills on the
job earn significantly higher incomes and are less likely to live in
poverty than those who communicate only in English.

In some cases, Hispanics earned $7,000 more per year than their
English-only counterparts, the study found. The report examined income
levels for bilingual and English-speaking-only Hispanics in 10
metropolitan areas nationwide with high percentages of Hispanic
immigrants. Similarly, a 2003 study, called "The Value of Bilingualism in
the U.S.  Labor Market," published in the Industrial & Labor Relations
Review, found that workers who know and use a second language in addition
to English earned an average of 7 percent more than workers who knew only
English.

The study also found that workers who do not know English very well earn
about 7 percent to 11 percent less than English-only speakers. During the
past several years, the Oregon Employment Department has seen an increase
in the number of companies requesting bilingual employees, said Danell
Butler, the office manager for the Oregon Employment Department's Salem
Center. "Businesses are beginning to recognize that their customer base is
changing, so they're looking for employees that best suit their customers'
needs," Butler said. "To these companies, bilingual skills are important,
and employees who have them are being compensated for those skills."

Like Salem Hospital, the agency pays a 5 percent differential to bilingual
employees who are required to use the skill on the job. Additionally in
Oregon, state policy requires that all government entities pay bilingual
workers a 5 percent differential if they use their skills on the job. But
just because candidate says they are bilingual does not mean they have the
ability to fully understand or fluently speak, read and write a foreign
language. "We've found that many people who grow up speaking a heritage
language at home aren't proficient in that language when they get into the
work force, which can be an obstacle to getting a better job," said
Lisbeth Claus, an associate professor of global human resources at the
Atkinson Graduate School of Management at Willamette University.

"The language should not only be spoken at home, but it should be learned
and studied at school," Claus said. "Studying the heritage language will
help the individual to learn the correct grammar and get a better job." In
the U.S. labor market study, the authors found that, compared with
monolinguals, people who are bilingual are more likely to have completed
at least a bachelor's degree. To verify that a prospective employee is
fluent in a second language, Salem Hospital requires that candidates take
a written test. For some businesses, finding bilingual candidates can be a
challenge.

To find qualified bilingual employees, West Coast Bank entered into a
recruitment agreement with iHispano. com, an online career site for
Hispanic and bilingual professionals. The decision to post listings on the
Hispanic job site was supported by Jill Faughender, a West Coast Bank vice
president and the human-resources manager at the Salem location at Church
and Center streets NE. "Spanish is the No. 1 foreign language we're
actively recruiting for, although we also have the need for Russian
speakers," Faughender said.  "Many of our largest clients employ
Spanish-speaking workers, so we want a bilingual staff to better serve our
clients' needs." At Salem Hospital, Trinidad Villegas and Paobla Chavez,
who speak only Spanish, recently were able to clear up a business matter
with Garcia's help.

"I'm just here to pay my bill," Villegas said in Spanish. "I'm glad she
(Garcia) is here, otherwise, I don't know how I would have made that clear
to someone who doesn't speak Spanish."

tguerrero at StatesmanJournal.com or (503) 399-6815

    Top foreign languages spoken in the U.S. Most-spoken foreign languages
in:

Spanish

French

German

Italian

Chinese

Tagalog (Philippines)

Polish

Korean

Vietnamese

Portuguese

SOURCE: U.S. Census Bureau

MARION COUNTY

Spanish

Russian

German

Vietnamese

Japanese

Chinese

POLK COUNTY

Spanish

German

French

Chinese

Korean

Dutch

OREGON

Spanish

German

Vietnamese

Russian

Chinese

French

SOURCE: Modern Language Association

Copyright 2006 Statesman Journal, Salem, Oregon

http://www.statesmanjournal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060904/NEWS/609040319/1001

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