The short answer
For unpaid wages, start with your state labor office, which is free. For a dangerous site, call OSHA. For anything you need a lawyer for, call legal aid or your local bar association referral line. All of these cost nothing to ask, and most have a Spanish line.
Unpaid wages: your state labor office
Every state has one, and filing a wage claim is free. You do not need a lawyer and most states take it online in about twenty minutes.
Search for your state name plus wage claim to find the real form. They contact the employer, and that call alone gets a lot of people paid.
There is a deadline and it is different in every state, so file within weeks rather than months. Bring the job post, your messages, your hours, and the rate you agreed to.
Federal backup: the Wage and Hour Division
The US Department of Labor handles minimum wage and overtime complaints nationwide. The number is 1-866-487-9243 and the call is free.
They will talk to you about a complaint no matter who you are or where you were born. Their job is the wage law, not immigration.
A dangerous job site: OSHA
OSHA takes safety complaints about work sites, and you can file one without giving your name to the employer. The number is 1-800-321-6742.
It is illegal for an employer to fire you or cut your hours for filing one. If that happens, tell OSHA, because retaliation is its own complaint with its own deadline, and that one is short.
Hurt at work: your state workers comp office
Every state has an agency that runs the workers compensation system and takes claims directly when an employer will not open one.
Search for your state name plus workers compensation, and use the site that ends in .gov. There are a lot of lookalike sites that just sell your information to lawyers.
Free lawyers: legal aid
Legal aid offices give free help to people with lower incomes, and employment and wage cases are common work for them. Find yours at lawhelp.org, or search legal aid plus your county.
If legal aid cannot take it, call your county or state bar association referral line. Many offer a short consultation for a small fee or nothing at all.
For an injury, most personal injury lawyers look at the case for free and only get paid if you win. That first call costs you nothing but the time.
Everything else: 211
Dial 211 from anywhere in the country and a real person connects you to local help. Rent assistance, food, health clinics, utility help, free tax preparation.
It is the best number to have in your phone when the problem is not exactly a legal one. They answer in Spanish too.
What these offices cannot do
They cannot make money appear tomorrow. A wage claim takes weeks or months, not days. Knowing that up front keeps you from giving up in week two.
They also cannot help with what you cannot show them. Everything in this section works better when you kept the job in the app, agreed the pay in writing, and wrote down your hours the same day you worked them.
What we can do here
We can remove an employer from the platform, which stops them doing it to somebody else. That is real and it is worth reporting.
We cannot collect your wages, because Day Labor Work never holds your pay. That money went from the employer straight to you, or it did not, and getting it is what the offices above are for.
This guide is general information, not legal, tax, or insurance advice. Rules differ by state and by situation, so talk to your own professional before you rely on it.
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