Learning another language is proving to not only increase your chances of finding work opportunities, but it’s also been shown to increase your earnings. 39% of US employers said they plan to hire bilingual candidates and half stated that if they had two equally qualified candidates, they would be more inclined to hire the bilingual one (link).
In Sean Kim’s article at Lifehack.org, (link), he explains how learning a language has been shown to add 10-15% to your wage. Of the valuable languages to learn, he ranks them in the following order:
- German
- French
- Spanish
- Mandarin
- Arabic
Here’s more from the Lifehack article:
This shows that learning a language is a wise investment for anyone, at any age, whether you’re preparing to enter the workforce or looking to expand your opportunities.
Assuming an average salary of around $45,000, a 2% “language bonus” average over 40 years, and also a 1% raise annually, you’d have an extra $67,000 by the time you retire. Since you can learn a new language quickly with the right solution, that’s a pretty good investment of your time.
What’s more, salary bonuses vary depending on the exact language in which you’re proficient. Here’s a quick breakdown of a few different secondary languages and their annual bonuses as reported by The Economist:
- Spanish — 1.5 percent bonus
- French — 2.3 percent bonus
- German — 3.8 percent bonus
This means that you can make an additional $50,000 to $125,000 just for knowing how to speak a foreign language!
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