‘They are getting two or three dollars more than the rest of us.’ This Bilingual Healthcare Worker Refuses to Translate for Patients For Free When Others Get Paid For It

This seems like a bit of a tricky situation.

If you have a certain skill set, are you supposed to help out your company and your managers?

Or do you demand more money for that skill?

A woman named Chena who works in healthcare shared a TikTok video where she talked about how she’s fed up with her boss expecting her to translate for patients who speak Spanish because she’s not getting paid any extra money for it.

She said, “When I got this job, I let them know like, ‘Hey, I speak Spanish. I’m fluent. But I wanna be paid for translating.”

But her employer won’t give her any more money.

She said, “If a white person goes to school and they learn Spanish, they are getting two or three dollars more than the rest of us.”

She said that she now makes it clear that she won’t translate unless she’s paid more…but a situation recently tested the stance she’s taken.

She said, “Fast forward, I’m working, and they get Spanish customers, and he is like, ‘I need you to translate Che.’”

She told her boss she needed to be paid for it but he refused.

She added, “Then I look bad ’cause I’m not helping my own people. But if I don’t put my foot down, then I’m not gonna make money. I’m not gonna do what I need to do to take care of my kids.”

She eventually told her boss that they should use Google Translate if they won’t pay their workers extra for their services.

Let’s take a look at the video.

@chenaguillen♬ original sound – Chena Guillen

Here’s what people had to say.

One individual said they felt bad about doing this but they had to stand their ground.

Another TikTokker talked about how they handle this situation.

And one person said their sister gets more money on the job because they can read and write Spanish.

Always demand more. You have more leverage than you think.