Be careful before 'quick quitting' and joining the Great Resignation. Your employer may hand you a bill for your job training.

• Workers quit in high numbers over the past few years — sometimes after being at the job under a year.
• Some employers are demanding that quitting workers reimburse them for their training costs.

Companies have grappled with labor shortages over the last few years as workers have quit at near-record rates. Now some businesses are trying to make it more costly for employees to join the Great Resignation.

Nearly 10% of US workers are covered by training repayment agreement provisions, according to a study from the Cornell Survey Research Institute, first reported on by Reuters. These provisions, or "TRAPS" as critics calls them, require workers to reimburse their employer for some of their job training costs if they quit too soon.

Most prevalent in the healthcare, trucking, and retail industries, these agreements can cost quitting workers thousands of dollars. The Student Borrower Protection Center estimated in July that these agreements are prevalent in industries that collectively employ over one-third of US private-sector workers.

"Employers are looking for ways to keep their workers from quitting without raising wages or improving working conditions," Jonathan Harris, an associate law professor at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, told Reuters.

Over the last several years, there's been an increase in not just quitting, but "quick quitting" — leaving one's job after less than 12 months, according to LinkedIn data. This was up nearly 10% versus the prior year as of March and remains elevated today.

While this might be good news for workers who have chosen to pursue greener pastures, it's been challenging for employers who say their time and money spent on training are wasted when workers walk out the door. TRAPs — which deter workers from leaving too soon and hit their wallets if they do so — are one way some businesses have pushed back.

Truck drivers, nurses, and pet groomers are facing payments when they quit

These repayment provisions first sprouted in the 1990s, when they were more common in higher-paying industries like finance, but they've "really taken off" in the last five to ten years, Harris told Bloomberg.

They've expanded to industries like nursing and trucking, where industry representatives called them "increasingly ubiquitous" and "particularly egregious."

For instance, a labor union accused trucking companies CRST and C.R. England of charging quitters $6,000 for reimbursed training costs if they leave before a certain period of time.

National Nurses United, the largest organization of registered nurses in the US, found 326 of nearly 1,700 nurses surveyed were required to reimburse their employers if they left too soon. At HCA's Mission Hospital in Asheville, North Carolina, for instance, a nurse is subject to a fee of up to $10,000 if they leave in less than two years, Nurses United wrote last year.

These agreements have reached the services industry as well.

BreAnn Scally, a 23-year-old who enrolled in PetSmart's grooming academy, discovered she'd have to pay $5,000 in training costs if she left the company less than a year after beginning the program, she told Bloomberg.

Simran Bal, a worker at a Washington state salon, told Reuters she was charged $1,900 for training costs after she quit last year.

Some of these workers voiced frustrations not only because they claim they were unaware of the provision when they started working, but because they had already received the training they were subject to prior to joining the company — and therefore didn't benefit from it.

Bal, for instance, said she received training for services she was already licensed in. Last month, a judge ruled in her favor and didn't require her to repay her former employer anything. But despite this victory, these employment agreements have generally been upheld in the courtroom.

In response to these developments, lawmakers and regulators are beginning to take notice. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, for instance, launched an inquiry in June.

To be sure, many workers who are subject to these agreements stay long enough to avoid any fees when they quit. PetSmart, for instance, said less than 2.1% of the more than 11,000 employees who completed the grooming program departed before the end of the first year — though it's possible some have stayed longer to avoid triggering the reimbursement fee. Additionally, these agreements are not always enforced.

Regardless, many companies say they are well within their rights to demand compensation for training costs when employees part ways.

"I'm seeing employers enter into these agreements, saying, 'I'm not about to put out of pocket the amount of money that it takes to get this person sufficiently trained in order for them to just go take that over to a competitor,'" Angie Davis, a Memphis attorney, told Bloomberg. "This is just a way for companies to protect themselves."

Have you been handed a bill by your employer when you tried to quit? If so, and you're willing to share your story, reach out to this reporter at jzinkula@insider.com.