Premium Pay for Persons Possessing Bilingual Skills.
Los Angeles Administrative Code § 4.84
in effectSec. 4.84. Premium Pay for Persons Possessing Bilingual Skills.
(a) Whenever the administrative head of any department, bureau or office determines that it is necessary or desirable that a position be filled by a person able to converse fluently in a language other than English, or speak, write and interpret a language other than English, the administrative head shall transmit to the Controller a written statement approving payment of a bilingual premium, as provided by this section, to the person occupying such a position and possessing such bilingual skills.
(b) After authorizing payment of a bilingual premium, the administrative head of the department shall certify to the Controller the name of any person eligible for a bilingual premium, and the Personnel Department shall certify to the Controller that the employee has qualified under its standards of fluency and proficiency for said language. Upon a position being filled with an employee possessing the applicable bilingual skills, the bilingual premium payment for such employee shall be effective the first day of the pay period in which the employee is certified by the Personnel Department as being proficient in said language. If the employee was previously certified by the Personnel Department as proficient for said language prior to occupying the position, then the bilingual premium payment will commence upon assignment to the position.
(c) Persons in classifications compensated by a 5-step, 12-step, or 15-step salary plan who are employed in such positions and certified as being qualified by the Personnel Department shall receive a bilingual premium of one premium level rate for duties requiring that they converse fluently in a language other than English, or two premium level rates for duties requiring that they interpret another language other than English, in addition to conversing fluently in that language. Persons in classifications not compensated by a 5-step, 12-step, or 15-step salary plan who are employed in such positions and certified as being qualified by the Personnel Department shall receive a bilingual premium of 2 3/4 percent of their salary or wages for duties requiring that they converse fluently in a language other than English, or of 5 1/2 percent of their salary or wages for duties requiring that they interpret and write a language other than English, in addition to conversing fluently in that language.
(d) Persons employed in non-represented classifications who have been approved for bilingual premium pay in accordance with subsections (a) and (b) above, shall receive a non-pension based bilingual bonus of $25 per pay period for either writing (including reading and interpreting) or conversing fluently in a language other than English, or $50 per pay period for writing (including reading and interpreting) in addition to conversing fluently in a language other than English. Eligible non-represented employees shall receive no more than one bilingual bonus per pay period.
SECTION HISTORY
Added by: Ord. No. 144,850, Eff. 4-4-73.
Amended by: Subsec. (c), Ord. No. 145,929, Eff. 5-14-74, Oper. 5-26-74; Subsec. (c), Ord. No. 148,563, Eff. 7-12-76, Oper. 7-4-76; In Entirety, Ord. No. 154,910, Eff. 4-2-81; Subsec. (c), Ord. No. 155,160, Eff. 6-19-81; Subsecs. (a), (b), (c), Ord. No. 158,612, Eff. 2-17-84; Subsec. (d) Deleted, Ord. No. 170,864, Eff. 1-22-96, Oper. 1-22-96; Subsec. (d) Added, Ord. No. 181,137, Eff. 4-2-10; Subsecs. (b) and (c), Ord. No. 186,341, Eff. 11-3-19.
Source: City of Los Angeles, Charter and Codes (American Legal Publishing, codelibrary.amlegal.com)URL: https://codelibrary.amlegal.com/codes/los_angeles/latest/laac/0-0-0-9302Fetched: 10/24/2026