“It is a very satisfying part of my work as an assemblymember when a constituent comes to me with an issue, and I can introduce legislation to solve their very problem,” Assemblyman Phil Steck wrote in a letter to the Enterprise editor in December 2023.

Trish D’Allaird had come to Steck that spring because she was hit with a $5,000 lawsuit after she left her job at a beauty salon. At issue were “training repayment agreement provisions” or TRAPs.

As a condition of employment, D’Allaird was required to sign a contract to stay in her role for a year; otherwise, she would be sued for $4,000 for “training reimbursement” despite not receiving any training, Steck wrote.

The “training” she did receive was working on a paying client and not bona fide training for which the employer paid out-of-pocket costs, he said. After several months on the job, she left due to the caustic chemicals being used and vaping on the premises — she is a cancer survivor.

Steck’s bill is now state law. The “Trapped at Work Act” in the Senate was sponsored by Rachel May, a Democrat from Syracuse. No longer can contract provisions force workers to repay training costs when they leave a job.

Governor Kathy Hochul signed the bill on Dec. 19, 2025.

California, Colorado, Connecticut, Indiana, and Pennsylvania also have laws targeting “stay-or-pay” agreements.

TRAPs have increasingly been used by employers to trap workers in low-paying or substandard working conditions by threatening them with thousands of dollars in repayment obligations, Steck said in a release this week, announcing the new law. 

“No worker should be trapped in a job by employer-created debt disguised as training,” said Steck, a Democrat representing Colonie, Niskayuna, and parts of Guilderland and Schenectady. “These practices undermine basic fairness, violate the spirit of our labor laws, and disproportionately harm women and young workers. With this law, New York is saying clearly that predatory employment contracts have no place in our state.”

“I went to work at a salon after holding a cosmetology license for 20 years and had to sign a training reimbursement agreement just to get the job,” D’Allaird said in the release. “I did not think much of it at the time, but after a few months, I realized I was receiving no real training at all.

“When I tried to leave, I was told I would owe more money than I had earned. This law is going to prevent this predatory practice from trapping people in jobs they do not want.”

The legislation was supported by worker advocates and labor organizations, including the Student Borrower Protection Center and the New York State Nurses Association, both of which have warned that TRAPs are increasingly common across industries.

“This law reaffirms our obligation to stand with working people,” Steck said in the release. “Economic freedom means being able to leave a job without fear of financial punishment.”