App Idea: Hours-Cut Documentation & Unemployment Eligibility Tool for Hourly Workers
A tool that helps hourly workers turn verbal workplace agreements into a documented paper trail and checks their state's rules for partial-unemployment eligibility after a hours cut.
0 builders saved this
Target keyword
hours cut documentation app idea
The original thread is a Pro feature
Upgrade to read the exact post this idea came from, with upvotes, comments, and a link to the thread.
Unlock with ProThe problem, in the searcher’s words
My job cut my hours to almost nothing instead of firing me or accepting my resignation — can I still file for unemployment? I have texts and emails where my manager asked me to stay and agreed to give me hours, but nothing official was signed. Does that count as still being employed, or did I basically quit?
People keep telling me different things: some say I need to 'stay resigned,' some say this is 'constructive dismissal,' some say I can get partial unemployment for the reduced hours even while still technically employed. I don't know which state rules apply to me or how to prove any of the verbal agreement actually happened.
I want to know how to document what my manager promised (in writing, before they can deny it) and whether cutting my hours from full-time to under 12 hours a week is enough to qualify for unemployment where I live.
What the thread shows
Dozens of commenters from different states independently describe the same employer tactic (cutting hours instead of firing or accepting a resignation) and converge on the same self-taught workarounds — email paper trails and manual research into state-specific 'reduction in hours' unemployment rules — showing this is a recurring, poorly-served situation for hourly workers rather than a one-off complaint.
“I know abrupt cuts to hours are grounds for unemployment but since I sent in a resignation, I'm not sure if this counts as me quitting?”
“One small trick to help with this that someone suggested to me is to email a summary of whatever was said afterward.”
“In WA, if they reduce your pay or hours by 25% or more you can file and collect unemployment while still employed. You don't have to quit to collect in this scenario.”
“Had a job pull the same thing, scheduled me down to nothing instead of firing me so it'd look like I walked. Filed anyway and it went through, the emails asking me to stay were what did it.”
Target customer
Who
Hourly and service-industry workers (food service, retail, gig-adjacent shift work) whose employer cuts their scheduled hours after a resignation attempt, schedule dispute, or other friction, instead of formally firing them.
Context
Triggered when an employee tries to quit or has a scheduling conflict, a manager talks them into staying with verbal promises about hours, and the employer then quietly reduces hours to near-zero — leaving the worker to figure out, alone and under financial pressure, whether they qualify for unemployment and how to prove the verbal agreement existed.
What to build
- State-by-state lookup of 'reduction in hours' / partial unemployment eligibility rules and thresholds
- Templated 'confirm our conversation' email generator to create a paper trail after verbal promises
- Timeline/evidence log to track promised vs. actual scheduled hours and manager communications
- Step-by-step checklist for filing a partial unemployment claim, with links to the user's state unemployment portal
- One-click PDF export of the documented timeline and messages for filing or appeals
Build note — The core asset is a maintained database of state-by-state 'reduction in hours'/partial-benefits unemployment rules, which change over time and need ongoing legal research or a licensed data source to stay accurate; the email templates, timeline log, and PDF export are straightforward to build; scheduling-app integrations would require per-provider API work and are not essential for MVP.
Later, if it lands
Who’s already out there
General legal document generator and attorney-access subscription service covering many personal and employment-related documents.
Gap: Not built for the specific workflow of logging promised-vs-actual hours or checking state unemployment eligibility for reduced hours; too broad/generic for this niche.
Online legal document and business/legal services platform, including some employment document templates.
Gap: No purpose-built tool for documenting verbal schedule agreements or navigating state-specific partial-unemployment rules.
Nonprofit that publishes employee-rights information, including state-by-state unemployment eligibility explainers.
Gap: Provides reference information only — no document/paper-trail generator, timeline tracker, or claim-filing assistant for an individual's specific situation.
AI-driven consumer-rights app that generates letters and disputes for various legal/administrative situations.
Gap: Unclear whether it has an unemployment-eligibility or hours-cut documentation feature specifically; positioning is broader consumer disputes.
Demand read
Many commenters independently arrived at the same manual best-practices (email paper trails, researching state rules, considering a lawyer), showing recurring need, but the thread contains no direct statement that someone would pay for a dedicated tool, so demand is inferred rather than confirmed.
Worth digging into before you build
3 to considerNo idea is a sure thing at this stage — these are open questions worth checking yourself, not a verdict against building it.
Sensitive Domain
Thread centers on employment/unemployment law, which varies by state and carries financial stakes for users — needs editorial/legal review before publishing.
Weak Demand
Only willingness-to-pay signal is an indirect suggestion to 'call a lawyer'; no one states they'd pay for a documentation or eligibility-checking product.
Verify Competitors
Confirm Workplace Fairness's actual feature set (informational only, per public knowledge) and whether DoNotPay covers unemployment/hours-cut scenarios before publishing.
Keep exploring
Browse the rest of the ideas board