A clawback clause lets an employer take back compensation it already paid or promised — a signing bonus, relocation cost, commission, or vested equity — if a condition is triggered, most commonly leaving before a set date or being terminated for cause. It turns "yours" money into conditional money.
Clawback provisions are easy to skim past in an offer letter, but they can cost you real money. The typical trigger is time: leave (or get fired for cause) within a defined period and you must repay a signing or relocation bonus, sometimes the full pre-tax amount even though you only received it after tax. Others cover commissions on deals that later cancel, or equity subject to forfeiture. Before you sign, you want to know exactly what can be clawed back, what triggers it, and for how long.
Often yes, if clearly written, though enforceability varies by state and by how the clause is structured. Some states limit recovery of certain wages. The safest move is to understand and negotiate the clause before signing rather than test it later.
Repaying the gross (pre-tax) amount of a signing bonus after you already paid tax on it, if you leave early. Ask for repayment to be net-of-tax and prorated by how long you stayed.
Upload the actual document and Main AI reads every clause, flags the risks, extracts the deadlines, and cites the law — free to start, no signup to see your first analysis.
Run the Job Offer Analyzer — free →