Terms of Service

Hard Earned (“Hard Earned,” “we,” “us”) is operated by HardEarned LLC, a Texas limited liability company. These Terms of Service (“Terms”) govern your access to and use of hardearned.work, our mobile-web experience, our SMS/text-messaging service, and related features (together, the “Platform”).

By creating an account, submitting an application or job post, replying to a text from us, or otherwise using the Platform, you agree to these Terms. If you don’t agree, don’t use the Platform.

1. Who we are

Hard Earned (“Hard Earned,” “we,” “us”) is operated by HardEarned LLC, a Texas limited liability company.

2. What Hard Earned is — and isn’t

Hard Earned is a self-service job board and verified-profile network for skilled-trades and other hourly and salaried workers and the employers who hire them. We help workers build a verified profile (license status, confirmed work history, named vouches from past supervisors) and help employers describe a role, search and review candidates, and manage their own hiring process — in plain text conversation, on the web, or both.

Hard Earned is not a staffing agency, employment agency, recruiter, or referral service, and we do not place anyone in a job. We do not select, screen, or contact a specific candidate on an employer’s behalf. Employers search, review, and decide who to contact themselves; a candidate must affirmatively agree before any contact information is exchanged. Every hiring decision — who to interview, who to hire, on what terms — is made solely by the employer. We are not a party to, and assume no responsibility for, the employment relationship between a worker and an employer.

Tools on the Platform that assist with hiring — including AI-generated interview question suggestions and the hiring-compliance coach described below — are decision-support tools for the employer’s own use. They do not constitute legal advice, and they do not guarantee that any job post, question, or message complies with applicable law. The employer remains solely responsible for its own compliance with all applicable employment laws.

3. Eligibility and accounts

You must be at least 18 years old and able to form a binding contract to use the Platform. If you’re acting on behalf of a business, you represent that you’re authorized to bind that business to these Terms.

You’re responsible for the accuracy of the information in your profile or job post and for keeping your account credentials secure. You’re responsible for all activity under your account.

Some features may be invite-only or require verification before use. We may decline to admit, or may suspend or remove, any account at our discretion, including for violating these Terms, providing false information, or conduct that undermines the integrity of verification or vouch data.

4. Verified profiles, licenses, and vouches

Workers may add license/certification data (where available, sourced from public state licensing records such as the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation), work history (self-reported and, where an employer confirms it, employer-verified), and vouches from people they name as current or former supervisors, coworkers, clients, or instructors.

We do not independently investigate or guarantee the truth of self-reported information, the accuracy of a third party’s vouch, or a license record’s currency beyond what the issuing authority’s public database shows at the time we check it. “Verified” on this Platform means confirmed against a specific source (a public license database, or an employer’s own confirmation) at a point in time — it is not a warranty of a worker’s competence, character, or fitness for any role, and employers should conduct whatever independent diligence they consider appropriate before making a hiring decision.

Vouches and testimonials reflect the stated opinions of the people who submit them, not Hard Earned’s own assessment.

5. Texting and other communications

By providing your phone number and opting in, you agree to receive text messages (SMS/MMS, and RCS where supported) from Hard Earned related to your account, job applications, interview coordination, and vouch requests. Message and data rates may apply. Message frequency varies based on your activity on the Platform.

• Reply STOP at any time to opt out of text messages. We’ll honor it immediately.
• Reply HELP for help, or contact us at hello@hardearned.work.
• Carriers are not liable for delayed or undelivered messages.
• Consent to receive texts is not a condition of using any part of the Platform that doesn’t require texting.

Binding actions by text. If you’ve e-signed a Hard Earned platform agreement, certain single-word replies to a Hard Earned text (for example, replying “HIRE,” “GO,” or “YES” to a specific, clearly-stated question we send you) constitute your electronic signature and have the same legal effect as a signature or action taken on the web, under the federal ESIGN Act and the Texas Uniform Electronic Transactions Act. We’ll always state clearly, in the text itself, what a given one-word reply will do before you send it.

We may also contact you by email for account, billing, and service-related notices.

6. Fees

Worker accounts are free. Employer fees are subscription and/or job-posting fees as described at the time of purchase or in your employer agreement — never a fee contingent on a specific hire. Fees are non-refundable except as required by law or expressly stated at time of sale.

Referral payouts. A worker, employer, or partner who refers someone who is hired through the Platform and remains employed past a stated retention window may receive a referral payout from Hard Earned. This is a growth incentive we pay, independent of and not charged to the hiring employer — it is not a placement fee and does not change the employer’s own flat subscription/job-posting pricing.

7. Hiring-compliance coach

Job posts, hiring requests, and certain in-platform messages may be reviewed by an automated tool designed to flag language that touches protected characteristics (race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, genetic information, and similar categories under applicable law), coded language for those categories, and pre-offer disability or medical questions, and to suggest corrected language.

This tool is a guardrail, not a guarantee. It checks content against a defined rule set; it does not represent that a post, question, or message is lawful, and it may not catch every issue. You remain solely responsible for your own compliance with employment law. Do not rely on this tool as a substitute for your own legal counsel.

8. Prohibited conduct

You agree not to:

• Post a job, question, or message that discriminates against, or expresses a preference based on, a legally protected characteristic;
• Submit a vouch, testimonial, review, or work-history claim you know to be false;
• Attempt to circumvent, manipulate, or disable the compliance coach, verification checks, or any other safety mechanism;
• Use the Platform to harass, threaten, or discriminate against another user;
• Scrape, data-mine, or bulk-extract Platform content outside normal use;
• Use the Platform for any unlawful purpose.

We may remove content, suspend accounts, and report conduct to appropriate authorities where we believe it’s warranted.

9. Content you provide

You retain ownership of the content you submit (profile information, posts, vouches, messages). You grant Hard Earned a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to host, store, display, and transmit that content as necessary to operate the Platform — for example, showing your public profile to employers, or including a vouch on the profile of the person it’s about.

10. Disclaimers

The Platform is provided “as is.” We disclaim all warranties, express or implied, including fitness for a particular purpose and non-infringement, to the fullest extent permitted by law. We do not guarantee that any candidate will be suitable for, or any employer will offer, any particular role.

11. Limitation of liability

To the fullest extent permitted by law, Hard Earned and its officers, members, and employees will not be liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages, or for lost profits or lost hires, arising from your use of the Platform. Our total liability for any claim arising from the Platform will not exceed the greater of (a) the amount you paid us in the 12 months before the claim, or (b) $100.

12. Indemnification

You agree to indemnify and hold Hard Earned harmless from claims arising from your use of the Platform, your content, or your violation of these Terms or applicable law, including any employment decision you make.

13. Dispute resolution

You and Hard Earned agree to resolve disputes through binding individual arbitration under the rules of the American Arbitration Association, rather than in court, except that either party may bring an individual claim in small-claims court. You and Hard Earned each waive the right to a jury trial and to participate in a class action. This section is governed by the Federal Arbitration Act. These Terms are otherwise governed by the laws of the State of Texas, without regard to conflict-of-law principles, and any claim not subject to arbitration will be brought exclusively in the state or federal courts located in Williamson or Travis County, Texas.

14. Changes

We may update these Terms from time to time. We’ll post the updated version here with a new “Last updated” date, and for material changes, we’ll make reasonable efforts to notify active users. Continued use after a change means you accept the updated Terms.

15. Termination

We may suspend or terminate your access to the Platform at any time, with or without cause. You may close your account at any time by contacting hello@hardearned.work.

16. Contact

Hard Earned, hello@hardearned.work · HardEarned LLC, Texas.