A group of senators, led by U.S. Sens. Sherrod Brown (D-OH), chair of the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, and Patty Murray (D-WA), chair of the U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, forwarded correspondence to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) to request an investigation of the use of training repayment agreements (TRAs).
Brown and Murray joined U.S. Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Tina Smith (D-MN), Bob Casey (D-PA), and Bernie Sanders (I-VT) in sending the letter to CFPB Director Rohit Chopra.
The senators maintain that TRAs require workers to pay back their employers for training if they leave their job within a certain period of time – placing the debt responsibility on workers.
Employers can also use TRAs to prohibit workers from pursuing higher pay or better opportunities.
“The growing use of debt contracts related to training in the workplace, particularly among lower-wage and low-middle wage workers, underscores the need for oversight to ensure compliance with consumer protection law,” the legislators wrote. “We recognize the important investments that employers make in training their workers. Nonetheless, we are deeply concerned by the possibility of a growing number of consumer debts originating in the workplace.”
If unchecked, the growth of TRAs would place more debt on workers seeking opportunity or navigating a family crisis that includes an illness keeping them from work.
“In light of TRAs’ growing and concerning role in our economy, we urge the CFPB to examine the role of TRAs in our economy and the contours of these anti-competitive agreements so that Congress and the public may better understand how they operate,” the legislators concluded. “It would be helpful to understand the terms and conditions in TRAs, including the maximum periods over which workers commit to remaining employed at firms and the maximum penalties to which workers can be subjected.”