Avelar Measure Offering Bilingual Pay Incentive for Illinois State Toll Highway Employees Passes House Vote

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — State Representative Dagmara “Dee” Avelar, D-Romeoville, passed legislation in the House that encourages language proficiency by offering pay incentives for bilingual individuals seeking employment. 

“The Illinois tollways are meeting points for differing people and communities all over Illinois,” said Avelar. “It’s important that we find a way for Illinois State Tollway employees to be able to communicate with everyone. By offering pay incentives for different languages and ASL, we ensure the public has access and information they need when interacting with tollway employees while providing extra income for bilingual individuals. This legislation incentivizes those that make the effort to learn more than one language or those that have been multilingual since childhood.”  

House Bill 5071 allows the Illinois State Toll Highway Authority to offer special pay supplements for positions that require a spoken, written, or signed language besides English including American Sign Language. The bill seeks to both attract multilingual employees to this line of work and also encourages current employees of the Illinois State Toll Highway Authority to become fluent in another language besides English.

“Language is a matter of accessibility, and we need to make sure all facets of Illinois life, including toll highways, are accessible to all,” said Avelar. “When we offer incentives to those who know more than one language and encourage individuals to learn another language, we are creating opportunities for employment, compensation and integration into diverse communities.”

This bill has passed the House and is now moving to the Senate for further consideration.