Wage Complaints Filed Against LanguageLine Solutions Across California

CALIFORNIA – Today, the Communications Workers of America (CWA) union requested investigations into violations of Los Angeles’s Living Wage Ordinance (LWO) and San Francisco’s Minimum Compensation Ordinance (MCO) by LanguageLine Solutions (LLS), a contractor providing translation and interpretation services to the cities. The statutory living wage for employees of city contractors in Los Angeles is $19.12, and in San Francisco it is $21.54.

CWA conducted a survey of more than one hundred interpreters employed by LLS in June and July of 2025 that found 59 percent of respondents reported earning less than the San Francisco MCO-mandated wage, 26 percent reported earning less than the Los Angeles statutory living wage, and 20 percent reported earning less than $18 per hour. The average wage reported by survey respondents was $20.19 per hour.

Workers at LLS are organizing a union with CWA to address low wages and unsustainable working conditions, which also impact service quality for clients.

“Qualified Interpreters are leaving LanguageLine Solutions because of low wages,” said Nonese Kissane, a Haitian Creole interpreter. “We want to be proud of our work, serving vulnerable communities in critical medical and legal settings. But we can barely afford to live with dignity, and it is hurting the quality of services we provide.”

In a letter to Los Angeles city officials, Claude Cummings, Jr., president of CWA, wrote, “Local governments can help workers hold Teleperformance accountable to international labor rights norms here in the United States by enforcing contractual requirements related to pay, auditing the service quality of LLS contracts, and reaching out to LanguageLine to discuss workers’ concerns.”

LanguageLine Solutions was acquired by the French multinational Teleperformance in 2016. LLS employs thousands of interpreters across the country and claims to serve more than 30,000 clients worldwide. As a subsidiary of Teleperformance, LLS is party to the Teleperformance-UNI Global Agreement on Social Responsibility, which affords workers the right to organize a union free of management interference and intimidation. However, the company is refusing to implement the agreement in the United States.

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About CWA: The Communications Workers of America represents working people in telecommunications, customer service, media, airlines, health care, public service and education, manufacturing, tech, and other fields.

cwa-union.org @cwaunion