HR Hotline: Are Employee Tuition Reimbursement Programs Legal?

Q: One of the benefits we’re most proud of is our employee tuition assistance program. Our policy requires that workers reimburse the company for tuition we’ve paid on their behalf if they leave the company within one year after payment.

Does new Connecticut legislation make these agreements unenforceable? 

A: No: tuition reimbursement agreements like yours are still enforceable. But you do need to draft these agreements very carefully to ensure that they comply with Connecticut law. 

The legislation that you heard about pertains to employment promissory notes—agreements that require employees to pay their employers if they leave the job before a specific period of time.

For example, many employers spend significant money on worker training, and want this money reimbursed if employees benefit from the training but then leave the job shortly thereafter.  

Connecticut law has regulated these types of agreements for many years.

Our legislature has identified them as against public policy, since they penalize workers for leaving their jobs, thus contradicting at-will employment laws which allow both the employer and employee to end employment without penalty. 

Promissory Notes

Until this year, the law prohibiting employment promissory notes applied only to employers with 26 or more employees.

The new legislation, which takes effect Oct. 1, 2026, applies to all employers. Thus, beginning Oct. 1, all Connecticut employers are prohibited from requiring their workers to sign employment promissory notes. 

It’s crucial then for employers to understand what is, and what is not, a promissory note.

The Labor Department does not consider tuition reimbursement agreements to be employment promissory notes.

Although the statute does not specifically mention tuition reimbursement agreements, the  Connecticut Department of Labor has interpreted the law to exclude such agreements.

In other words, the Labor Department does not consider tuition reimbursement agreements to be employment promissory notes, and so will not penalize an employer for using them. 

The Labor Department’s interpretation is just that—an informal interpretation that is not part of the statute itself.

Employer Compliance

As a result, the best way for an employer to ensure the enforceability of its tuition agreements is to draft them by tracking the specific language of the statute, which permits five types of agreements: 

1. Those that require an employee to repay any sums “advanced” to the employee; 
2. Those that require an employee to pay the employer for any property sold or leased to the employee; 
3. Sabbatical agreements for educational personnel;  
4. Agreements between an employer and a collective bargaining representative; and 
5. Agreements to reimburse employers for fees relating to a federal H-1B visa (effective through September 2026). 

For our purposes, we’ll focus on the first permissible agreements—those that identify money advanced to an employee.   

A tuition reimbursement agreement will likely be enforceable if it describes the tuition payment as a sum the employer has advanced to the employee, and which the employee will not fully earn until they have remained employed for “x” months after the payment is made.

This, along with the Labor Department’s favored view of employer-provided tuition assistance, will very likely protect your company’s program. 

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HR problems or issues? Email or call CBIA’s Diane Mokriski or Delmarina López at the HR Hotline (860.244.1900). The HR Hotline is a free service for CBIA member companies and is intended to provide general information and does not constitute legal advice. Please consult with legal professionals for specific guidance for your specific situation.