After initially going into effect on December 19, 2025, New York Governor Kathy Hochul signed a chapter amendment to the Trapped at Work Act (the Act) on February 13, 2026. As amended, beyond pushing its effective date to December 19, 2026, the Act now has a specified application, an expanded scope, and new circumstances exempt from the Act’s requirements.
The amended law narrows the Act’s application from a “worker” to an “employee” and “employer” as defined within the New York Labor Law. The Act as amended also clarifies that a covered “employment promissory note” includes “any instrument, agreement, or contract provision that requires an employee to pay the employer, or the employer's agent or assignee, a sum of money if the employee's employment relationship with a specific employer terminates before the passage of a stated period of time.”
Even with these refinements, the general principle that this law intended to create is still intact: Employers may not require, as a condition of employment, any such repayment obligation unless it falls within an applicable exception.
The amended statute lays out an explicit exception for repaying incentive compensation, which was not provided as originally drafted. Specifically, it was not clear whether the Act applied to the repayment of bonuses when an employee leaves the organization before a specified time.
Now, as amended, the Act permits agreements that require...
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