Rep. Summer Lee, Sen. Ed Markey Demand Answers from Major Corporations on Use of 'Stay-or-Pay' Contracts and Worker Debt Schemes

Text of Letters (PDF)

WASHINGTON. D.C. - JUNE 25, 2026 - Today, Congresswoman Summer L. Lee (PA-12) and Senator Edward J. Markey (D-MA) sent letters to University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, Frontier Airlines, Smoothstack, HCA Healthcare, and CRST seeking information about the companies' use of coercive "stay-or-pay" contracts, including Training Repayment Agreement Provisions (TRAPs), which can burden workers with substantial debt for leaving their jobs. These companies have faced multiple lawsuits challenging restrictive contract terms.

The letters build on Rep. Lee and Sen. Markey's previous oversight effort examining the federal government's response to the growing use of TRAPs and other forms of employer-driven debt, including actively repealing rules that would have banned TRAPs. After pressing federal agencies for answers about their role in protecting workers from these practices, the lawmakers are now seeking transparency directly from companies reported to have used such agreements.

"Workers deserve the freedom to change jobs, seek higher wages, and leave unsafe or exploitative workplaces without being threatened with crushing debt," said Rep. Lee. "These stay-or-pay contracts can leave workers feeling trapped, even if employers never attempt to collect. We will continue to seek accountability for coercive practices and this anti-worker administration that puts pocketbooks over people."

"Big corporations always find a way to squeeze the little guy," said Sen. Markey. "Workers should have the right to leave a job if it's unsafe, if they're being harassed, or if they need time to take care of themselves or their family. That choice should fall with the individual - not the corporation dictating their every move. While these companies have some of the most egregious examples of TRAPs, many more companies take advantage of workers by holding them in debt if they leave. That is wrong. It's high time we put workers over greedy CEOs raking in profit."

A growing number of employers use TRAPs to lock workers into jobs by requiring them to repay purported training costs or other expenses if they leave before a specified date. A 2024 study found that 1 in 12 workers in the United States are subject to a TRAP, with the share of workers covered by these agreements more than doubling between 2014 and 2020. Worker advocates have warned that these arrangements can function as a powerful restraint on worker mobility, suppress wages, and trap workers in jobs they would otherwise leave.

The letters request detailed information about each company's use of TRAPs and other stay-or-pay contracts, including how many workers are subject to the agreements, the penalties workers face for leaving, how repayment amounts are calculated, whether companies have sued workers or referred debts to collection agencies, and how much revenue companies have generated from collecting on employer-driven debt.

These letters are supported by Protect Borrowers, an organization that has worked to expose the growing use of TRAPs and other employer-driven debt arrangements across the economy.

"As millions of working families are grappling with an affordability crisis and falling into debt to make ends meet, we are now seeing corporations try to get in on the game by making workers pay fees to leave their jobs. Across the country big corporations are using predatory debt to trap people at work, which is simply modern-day indentured servitude," said Chris Hicks, Senior Policy Advisor at Protect Borrowers. "We applaud Congresswoman Lee and Senator Markey for ensuring that all workers are treated with dignity and respect. It is time to remind these predatory companies: employers are required to pay employees for their work, not the other way around."

Copies of the letters are available here.

Congresswoman Summer Lee serves on the House Committee on the Judiciary and the Committee on Education and Workforce. Since taking office in January 2023, she has delivered historic levels of federal investment totaling over $2.7 Billion brought back to Western PA, including over $580 million for infrastructure, over $110 million for affordable transit, over $500 million to keep clean energy manufacturing at home in Pennsylvania, and over $55 million on clean energy efforts in and around schools to help keep our kids and communities safe. These investments will help improve Western Pennsylvania's infrastructure and transit, ensure cleaner air and drinking water, lower housing costs, fund research institutions, fuel clean manufacturing, fund STEM innovation and entrepreneurship, boost workforce development, and create thousands of good paying union jobs.  Lee and her team have also delivered casework and constituent services to over 4,000 constituents with issues ranging from helping our seniors and disabled community access Medicare and social security to helping folks secure housing and helping families with immigration support and passports.