Contract trap · Employment
Training cost clawback
If the employee leaves (or is fired) within 1-3 years they must repay training costs, sign-on bonus, relocation or immigration expenses — often in full, not pro-rated, sometimes as a promissory note with interest and authorised deduction from final wages.
- Severity
- Serious
- How often it turns up
- Regular
- Holds up?
- Depends where you are
- Clause phrases
- 20
What it looks like in a contract
Redline matches these phrases against your document verbatim. Drafters rarely invent new wording — they copy it, which is why the same sentences turn up across unrelated contracts.
In English-language contracts
- training repayment
- repay the cost of training
- if Employee voluntarily terminates within
- sign-on bonus shall be repaid in full
- relocation expenses shall be reimbursed
- authorizes deduction from final wages
- promissory note
- stay-or-pay
- immigration costs
- employee shall be liable for
In Russian-language contracts
- обязуется отработать не менее
- возместить затраты на обучение
- в полном объеме независимо от отработанного времени
- ученический договор
- стипендия подлежит возврату
- подъемные подлежат возврату
- затраты на релокацию
- удерживается из заработной платы
- штраф за досрочное увольнение
- в случае увольнения по собственному желанию ранее
Check your own contract
Paste a clause, a page or the whole document. Nothing leaves your browser: the matching runs here, on this page, against the phrases above.
Why it bites
It is a non-compete by another name: quitting costs $5,000-$20,000 (PetSmart groomers ~$5,000; nurses and pilots more), so workers stay in bad jobs; the FTC's 2024 rule treated TRAPs as functional non-competes and the CFPB opened an inquiry into 'employer-driven debt' (2022); in RU the law allows only proportional recovery for genuine training.
Is it enforceable where you are
The same clause can be routine in one country and void in another. What follows is what the law says where you are — not advice on your particular contract.
The rules differ sharply: in Germany and France a post-term non-compete is only valid if the employer pays compensation, in England it must go no further than protecting a legitimate interest, and in the US enforceability is state by state.
United States
Generally enforceable for bona fide external training if reasonable and pro-rated; unenforceable where it cuts pay below minimum wage or violates state deduction laws; H-1B employers cannot recover petition costs (20 CFR 655.731); Colorado (C.R.S. 8-2-113) restricts them; California AB 692 (2025) bans most 'stay-or-pay' provisions from 2026; CFPB inquiry (June 2022); the vacated FTC 2024 rule treated onerous TRAPs as non-competes.
- Cited
- 20 CFR 655.731
- AB 692
- CFPB
- FTC
European Union
Directive 2019/1152 Art 13: training the employer is legally required to provide must be free and count as working time; Germany: repayment clauses valid only with a monthly sliding scale and where the training benefits the worker; France: clause de dédit-formation only for costs above the legal minimum, proportionate.
- Cited
- Directive 2019/115
United Kingdom
Enforceable if a genuine pre-estimate of loss with a sliding scale; a flat full-repayment clause risks being a penalty; deduction from wages requires prior written consent (ERA 1996 s.13).
- Cited
- ERA 1996 s.13
Russia
Ст. 249 ТК: возмещение только затрат на обучение, пропорционально неотработанному времени и только при увольнении без уважительных причин; условие «в полном объеме» ухудшает положение работника и не применяется (ст. 9 ТК); бонусы/подъемные без ученического договора взыскать сложно; удержания — не более 20% (ст. 138).
- Cited
- ст. 138
- ст. 9 ТК
Where this has actually happened
Regulator actions, court rulings and the contracts they were fought over.
- PetSmart Grooming Academy TRAP class action (Towards Justice, filed 2022) — groomers owed roughly $5,000 if they left within 2 years
- CFPB inquiry into employer-driven debt (June 9, 2022)
- California AB 692 (2025) — ban on 'stay-or-pay' contracts
What to do
In order, from the thing that takes a minute to the thing that takes a letter.
- Require pro-rating by month served, exclude termination without cause and constructive dismissal, limit to third-party training costs actually paid (no 'on-the-job' training), no interest, no wage deductions without separate written consent, and a cap
- For bonuses insist on a declining schedule
- Check state bans (CA AB 692 from 2026
- CO limits).
Traps that travel with it
Drafters who use one of these usually use several.