State asks Minnesota court interpreters to keep working without pay resolution

The state judiciary can't afford to give courtroom interpreters large pay increases right now, according to a letter from State Court Administrator Jeff Shorba, but officials are inviting translators to work with them to lobby for more money at the Legislature. Meanwhile, they're asking interpreters to keep working.

Minnesota's certified foreign language court interpreters are threatening to stop working on Monday in a fight for higher rates.

The foreign language interpreters, who work part-time as independent contractors without benefits, oppose a new compensation policy taking effect Monday that increases their pay from $56 to $65 per hour, after they had asked for $95 to keep up with inflation following decades of minimal raises. The new policy also makes other changes they dispute, including eliminating pay for travel time.

After interpreters sent a letter saying they would stop working soon, Shorba replied late Thursday urging them to join the judicial branch in asking the Legislature for $1.525 million in additional yearly funding for the court interpreter program. If approved, he said, the money would go toward increasing hourly rates for certified interpreters to as much as $75.

But given the current legislative appropriations, Shorba wrote, the courts can't afford to meet the interpreters' demands. The court interpreter program has a base budget of $4.2 million for 2024.

"I respectfully ask that you work with us to secure this additional funding, not only by lobbying alongside [the judicial branch] but also by working with us to continue delivering justice to the people of Minnesota," Shorba wrote. "A work stoppage would undermine our efforts to present a unified message to the Legislature about the critical need for additional interpreter funding in Minnesota."

Certified interpreters told the Star Tribune that they plan to respond Monday morning with a clear message that they are united. The court still has access to many non-certified, lower-paid interpreters on its roster.

In interviews, interpreters have said that low pay is driving people from the profession and many skilled professionals are pursuing private sector work that often pays $100 to $150 an hour and covers travel time and mileage.

American courts are required to provide interpreters under the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and advocates of better compensation for them say that equal access to justice is at risk as skilled people leave the courts for better opportunities.

State courts also have seen an increasing need for interpreters: 46,622 hearings required a foreign language interpreter in 2022, a 77% increase since 2012. The court said it has 85 active, certified interpreters — most of them for Spanish, followed by Russian and Hmong.