Justicia Lab and New York Legal Assistance Group launch new chatbot Reclamo AI to help New Yorkers understand and address wage theft

Justicia Lab and New York Legal Assistance Group launch new chatbot Reclamo AI to help New Yorkers understand and address wage theft

• December 9, 2025
• 11:34 am

NEW YORK - Today Justicia Lab - Pro Bono Net's nonprofit innovation incubator for technology solutions supporting the worker and immigrant rights movement - along with the New York Legal Assistance Group (NYLAG) announced the launch of Reclamo AI. The tool is a multilingual, mobile-first digital assistant that helps low-wage and immigrant workers to prevent, assess and document workplace violations in New York State.

The initial iteration of Reclamo launched in 2022 to help screen and file wage theft complaints in New York State. It was originally designed to empower non lawyer advocates - including worker organizers and staff from worker and employment centers - to support workers in addressing wage theft violations in the construction and buildings trades. The tool has been used to file over $1.5 million in wage theft claims on behalf of workers since its launch.

The new edition is now available for workers to use and access directly by text and voice through any smartphone browser or WhatsApp. The content is optimized in both English and Spanish and is accessible in an additional 50 languages. The expanded platform now covers all areas of employment law in New York State, including the sectors where wage theft is most prevalent including construction, hospitality, domestic work, retail, and child and elder care services.

"Reclamo AI comes at a moment when workers feel disempowered, and we want them to know they have power, a voice and partners to support them," said Justicia Lab Director Rodrigo Camarena.

"There is unlimited need for advocacy support for workers but nearly every legal service organization in New York is overrun with demand," said Mel González, director of NYLAG's Employment Law Project. "By embracing AI and other new platforms with technology partners like Justicia Lab that center building worker power, a greater number of low-wage and immigrant workers will be able to receive accurate and timely legal education and resources."

Wage theft is a national epidemic and is especially prevalent in New York state, having been experienced by over 127,000 New Yorkers who are collectively owed millions in lost wages and disproportionately impacting low-wage workers, communities of color, immigrants and women.

This issue is enabled by a host of factors including: a lack of knowledge by workers around state wage and hour rules, poorly designed and enforced bureaucratic complaint processes, and lack of free or low bono legal assistance. Filing a wage theft claim is difficult and time-consuming, with forms filled with legal jargon that's hard to understand, especially for non-English speakers. As a result, many potential wage theft claims remain overlooked and unfiled.

Through Reclamo AI, workers are able understand their situation and what remedies are available and expedite their ability to take action helping them to:

• Understand laws pertaining to wage theft in New York State and federally - including minimum wage violations, overtime requirements and illegal deductions
• Find out if a current or potential employer has committed wage theft exploitation previously
• Provide information on pro bono legal support and non lawyer advocates for additional assistance
• Safely be connected with pro bono legal support and non lawyer advocates for additional assistance

The tool leverages vetted workplace justice educational materials collated by NYLAG's team of lawyers as well as Documented NY's Wage Theft Monitor database of more than 35,000 proven claims of wage theft filed with the New York State and Federal Departments of Labor and other proprietary materials developed by Justicia Lab and their partners. This ensures that workers will be learning directly from vetted data and verified legal information from trusted sources rather than from the wider internet.

Reclamo AI was developed using an original application of generative artificial intelligence, with data privacy and security measures directly designed into the development of the tool. Reclamo AI's user data is stripped of personally identifiable information, anonymized, and deleted from the system every 48 hours. The tool also leverages enterprise AI models, and does not use or share user data for AI retraining. Justicia Lab will continue to integrate worker and advocate feedback into new features and with future versions of the tool.

Reclamo AI was developed with funding and technical support from GitLab's AI for Economic Opportunity Fund and support from the J.M. Kaplan Innovation Prize.

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About Justicia Lab
Justicia Lab is Pro Bono Net's immigrant justice technology lab and a nonprofit legal tech initiative whose mission is to transform immigrant justice through collaboration, creativity, and technology. It works hand in hand with immigrants and their advocates to identify common challenges and incubate scalable digital tools to help immigrants navigate the immigration system, find workplace justice, and more. Justicia Lab has developed over a dozen legal tools for immigrant justice, helping over 500,000 people annually find critical immigration information and relief.

About Pro Bono Net
Pro Bono Net is the country's leading nonprofit access-to-justice innovator with a 25-year history of impact. From connecting attorneys to those in most need to creating legal tools to help individuals advocate for themselves, Pro Bono Net makes the law work for the many and not the few.

About NYLAG
Founded in 1990, New York Legal Assistance Group (NYLAG) is a leading civil legal services organization combating economic, racial and social injustice by advocating for people experiencing poverty or in crisis. Our services include comprehensive, free civil legal services, financial empowerment, impact litigation, policy advocacy and community partnerships. Prioritizing client-centered, trauma-informed and community-rooted programming, NYLAG worked at more than 200 community sites and impacted the lives of more than 127,000 people last year.

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