Hiring guideRead at source, 29 September 2026

How to Recruit Bilingual Employees: The Ad, the Pay Differential and the Language Test

To recruit bilingual employees, first write down which language the job needs and for what tasks: speaking with customers, reading documents, or writing. Then advertise where bilingual people will see it, including a job ad written in that language, name any bilingual pay differential in the ad, and test the skill the job uses with a short conversation or task in that language. Under EEOC guidance, you may require a language other than English only when the job needs it for effective performance.

Start with what “bilingual” means for this job

“Bilingual preferred” is a common line in these job ads, and one of the least useful. It does not tell a candidate which language, how well, or for what, and it gives you nothing to test against. Before you post, answer four questions:

• Which language? For many U.S. employers the answer is Spanish, but name it either way. “Bilingual” alone could mean any pair of languages.
• Which tasks? Greeting walk-in customers, taking calls, explaining a care plan to a family, reading a work order, or writing messages to customers. Each needs a different level of skill.
• Speaking, reading or writing? Many frontline roles only need conversation. Requiring written fluency you don’t use shrinks your pool for no reason.
• Required or helpful? If the job can be done without the second language, say it is a plus, not a requirement, and don’t use it as a knockout.

This is also the legal starting point. The EEOC’s national origin guidance says that requiring fluency in a language other than English is only permissible if it is required for the effective performance of the position. When it is, you can decline candidates who lack the skill and assign bilingual staff to serve customers in that language. A written list of the tasks that use the language is the record that shows the requirement is real.

Bilingual employees are not interpreters

A bilingual employee does their regular job in two languages. An interpreter or translator converts meaning from one language to another as the job itself. BLS counts interpreters and translators (SOC 27-3091) as a separate occupation: 73,900 jobs in 2025, 6,000 openings a year, a median annual wage of $60,170 in May 2025, and a bachelor’s degree as the typical entry education. If you need someone to interpret medical, legal or safety information word for word, you are hiring for a different skill than a bilingual front desk associate, and should recruit and test for it separately.

Where to find bilingual employees

• Your current team. Ask who speaks which languages and at what level. Some of your best bilingual hires may be internal moves or promotions, and they are the fastest to fill.
• Referrals, as one channel among several. Bilingual employees know other bilingual people. Pay referral bonuses, but keep other channels running: the EEOC gives the example that relying on word-of-mouth recruitment by a mostly Hispanic workforce may violate the law if the result is that almost all new hires are Hispanic.
• Community colleges and adult education. Language programs, English as a second language classes and interpreting certificate programs are full of working adults who speak two languages.
• Community organizations. Cultural associations, community centers and places of worship share job information that people trust. Our guide on how to recruit immigrants and refugees covers these partners and resettlement agencies in detail.
• Job ads in the second language. An ad in the language you need reaches bilingual people who are not searching job boards, covered next.

Spanish-language job ads on Facebook and Instagram

If the job needs Spanish, write the ad in Spanish. A candidate who reads the ad comfortably and applies has already shown part of the skill. Run an English version alongside it so bilingual candidates who mostly read in English also see the job.

Job ads on Meta run in the Employment special ad category. You cannot target by age, gender or ZIP code, and location targeting needs at least a 15-mile radius. That means the ad’s language and wording do most of the work of reaching the right readers. Our Special Ad Category guide explains the rules.

• Write it, don’t machine-translate it. Have a fluent speaker who knows your local community write or check the ad. Job titles and pay terms often have regional words.
• Keep the application in the same language. An ad in Spanish that leads to a form only in English loses the people it just reached.
• Put pay and the differential first. “$18.50 an hour, plus $1.00 an hour for bilingual Spanish” is clearer than “competitive pay, bilingual a plus”.

The rates are illustrative; use your own. For more on structure, see our job ad copywriting guide.

Keep the ad about the skill, not the person

The EEOC states that it is illegal for an employer to publish a job ad that shows a preference for, or discourages someone from applying because of, national origin, among other characteristics. Ask for the language skill, not a background. “Speaks Spanish and English” describes a skill anyone can have. Phrases about where someone is from, or that suggest you want a particular nationality or native speakers only, describe the person, and don’t belong in the ad. The same rule applies to screening questions and interviews: ask whether the candidate can do the tasks in the language, not where they learned it.

Bilingual pay differentials

There is no single standard bilingual pay differential, and no federal rule sets one. The EEOC’s guidance says employers are not required by Title VII to provide additional compensation for work performed in other languages, provided employees are not required to work extra hours without compensation. Many employers pay a differential anyway, because a candidate with the skill has other options and the work is harder: bilingual staff often become the go-to person for every call in that language.

One published example: on April 8, 2025 Pennsylvania’s Shapiro Administration announced a six-month pilot at the Department of Labor & Industry paying $1.00 an hour to qualifying employees who are proficient in speaking and writing in Spanish. The state said about 1,100 employees could qualify, and that they must meet minimum requirements set by the department for verbal and/or written Spanish proficiency. That structure is a useful model even if your figure is different:

• Tie the differential to a test, not to a self-rating on the application.
• Choose the form: an hourly premium, a flat monthly stipend, or a higher base rate for roles where the language is required.
• Apply it the same way to everyone in the role who passes the test and uses the language, and write the policy down.
• Put it in the ad. A named differential is a reason to apply; “bilingual a plus” is not.

Check whether your state requires a pay range in the posting on our pay transparency laws by state page.

How to screen and test language skills

A checkbox that says “I speak Spanish” tells you very little. Test the skill the job uses, the same way for every candidate for that role:

• On the mobile application: one question, “This role requires speaking Spanish and English with customers every day. Can you do that?” Use it as a knockout only if the language is genuinely required.
• A five-minute conversation in the language during the phone screen, led by a fluent employee, built around a real situation: a customer calling about a late delivery, a family asking about visiting hours.
• A short reading or writing task only if the job involves reading or writing in the language: reply to a customer text, or read a work order and explain it.
• A simple rubric: could the candidate understand the request, respond clearly, and handle a follow-up question? Score it before the rest of the interview so it isn’t colored by other impressions.

Our pre-screening questions guide covers which knockouts hold up. If you also have an English requirement, the same EEOC guidance applies: an English fluency requirement is permissible only if required for the effective performance of the position, and the level should fit the job.

English-only rules and bilingual staff

Employers who recruit bilingual staff sometimes also want rules about which language is spoken at work. The EEOC’s guidance says blanket rules requiring employees to speak English at all times are presumptively unlawful, and that narrower rules must be justified by business necessity and explained to employees before they are enforced. If you are considering one, get advice first; a rule that makes bilingual hires feel unwelcome also undoes the recruiting.

Reply fast, in the candidate’s language

A bilingual candidate is in demand with several employers at once. Text every applicant within minutes of applying, in the language they applied in, to confirm the application and tell them what happens next. Our recruiting text message templates include wording you can translate and adapt.

What it costs to recruit bilingual employees

Boostpoint’s 2026 Social Job Advertising Benchmark, drawn from 891 Boostpoint-managed campaigns on Meta, does not break out bilingual roles, so there is no bilingual cost figure to quote. Cost depends first on the role family. For a bilingual customer service or call center role, the Customer service / admin family in the benchmark had a median of $2.71 per applicant. For bilingual caregivers, the Caregiver / home care family had a median of $3.76. Costs are what advertisers paid for advertising only, and cost per applicant is not cost per hire.

The apply experience explained 70% of the variation in cost per applicant between campaigns. That makes the application language matter: an ad in Spanish that sends readers to an application they can’t read comfortably will show up as a lower apply rate and a higher cost. For call center roles specifically, see our call center recruiting guide.

Frequently asked questions

Sources: U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Enforcement Guidance on National Origin Discrimination and Prohibited Employment Policies/Practices; Pennsylvania Office of Administration, bilingual pay pilot announcement (April 8, 2025); U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Employment Projections 2025-35 and May 2025 median annual wage (interpreters and translators, SOC 27-3091); Boostpoint 2026 Social Job Advertising Benchmark. Read at source 29 September 2026.