Compliance Stuff

New York employers should soon have more clarity on the Empire State’s new law targeting “stay or pay” agreements – and more time to comply. The state legislature recently passed amendments designed to address ambiguities and potential overreach in the original statute enacted in December 2025. The Trapped at Work Act, signed by Governor Hochul late last year, was intended to protect worker mobility by prohibiting employment agreements that require employees to repay certain training costs if they leave the job before a specified period. These are known as “stay or pay” agreements . However, the law’s broad language raised concerns about its impact on common employment practices, such as repayment of tuition reimbursement, signing bonuses, and relocation packages. The new updates will better define the law’s application and carve out exceptions for these and other standard business arrangements. Here’s what you need to know about the act and the pending changes as we wait for the Gover...

Last week, the California legislature passed a law that seeks to ban many “stay-or-pay” contracts, including training repayment agreements, as part of the state’s continued emphasis on employee mobility. But the bill excludes from the prohibition some of the most common arrangements, like tuition reimbursement and retention bonus repayment , so long as employers stay within new statutory guardrails. Assuming the governor signs the bill into law (which we expect), the new prohibitions will apply to contracts entered on or after January 1, 2026 – and workers who feel aggrieved can file private lawsuits and seek civil penalties for violations. Here’s what employers need to know to prepare. What Agreements Does AB 692 Prohibit? Recall that the previous General Counsel for the National Labor Relations Board  tried to crack down on “stay-or-pay” provisions through an enforcement memorandum last year,  but that memorandum was  rescinded by the new acting GC in February . The ...