Bilingualism Pays

This is the conclusion of Dr. Sandra H. Fradd''s analytical study "Creating Florida''s Multilingual Work Force" (Florida Department of Education, 1999), also available on the web at http://www.ncbe.gwu.edu/. The work focuses on the need of companies engaged in international trade and/or specialty domestic markets for fully bilingual employees who can read, write and conduct business in both English and Spanish. The need in Miami is so great that Hipanics who are entirely bilingual earn more than those who speak only English. The same holds true in Jersey City and San Antonio, and there is strong statistical evidence that there is some degree of advantage in San Diego and El Paso as well.