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Know Your Rights
Source: Fast Company
Subject: Workplace Justice
Type: Media Coverage

Wage theft is rampant among construction workers. This app helps them get their money back

A straightforward questionnaire usable by non-lawyers can help undocumented workers effectively regain the estimated $50 billion stolen annually. The questionnaire is part of ¡Reclamo!, a digital tool for screening and filing wage theft complaints with the government. Written at a seventh-grade reading level in both English and Spanish, the tool is targeted at the undocumented workers who make up much of the construction industry’s workforce. These workers regularly have their wages stolen, partly because of their immigration status and partly because of bad actors in the industry. The questionnaire in the tool helps them document this theft and craft a legally sound complaint that can be submitted to the labor department. Since its soft launch in October, ¡Reclamo! has been used to claim more than $1 million in stolen wages.