America Lets Too Much Young Talent Go to Waste

Re:America Lets Too Much Young Talent Go to Waste by magduf on Wednesday February 06, 2019 @05:05PM (#19100572)

Have you ever heard of a relocation bonus? Do you think the notion that an employer can give a new employee $10k+ for moving costs, and then allow them to walk out the door a week later to their competitor is laughable? You might, which is why relocation bonuses almost always have a retention clause: if the employee voluntarily quits before a certain amount of time, then the employee has to pay back all or part of that bonus.

I got a huge relo bonus once to move cross-country. But it had a 2-year clause attached to it, so if I had left after a year, for instance, I would have had to pay back 1/2 of it.

I don't see why the same couldn't be done for education paid by employers.

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Re:America Lets Too Much Young Talent Go to Waste by solatic on Thursday February 07, 2019 @02:11PM (#19107559)

There's a difference between a relocation bonus paid to a mid-career professional for recouping relocation expenses and an educational debt owed by somebody entering an entry-level position. A mid-career professional can pay back a relocation bonus from savings if necessary, but an educational debt would generally result in debt bondage until the debt was cancelled.

Remember, a non-compete doesn't prevent people from leaving, it just prevents people from leaving and taking a job in the same field. Most people won't want to leave their field, which is why the non-compete is effective, but in the case of exploitation, people still have an out. An educational debt would follow somebody if they decided to leave, and that's therefore much more coercive and prone to exploitation.

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Re:America Lets Too Much Young Talent Go to Waste by magduf on Thursday February 07, 2019 @03:01PM (#19108013)

I got my giant relocation bonus when I was only a couple years out of college.

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