Glossary → Employment
Employment

Clawback

A right to reclaim pay, a bonus, or equity already given to you.

A clawback lets a company recover compensation under defined conditions — leaving early, a restatement of financials, or breaking a term of your agreement. Signing bonuses and relocation payments often carry repayment triggers.

In practice

“If you resign within 12 months, the signing bonus must be repaid in full.”

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The repayment triggers to find

Read exactly what triggers repayment and how it is calculated — full amount or prorated. Clawbacks hide in signing-bonus letters, relocation agreements, and equity plans. If you might move on within the window, the repayment exposure is a real number to weigh.

See this in your own document: run a free analysis — findings quote the exact language.

What it looks like in a real document

“Employee agrees to repay a prorated portion of the retention bonus if employment ends before the vesting date.”

“Prorated” is friendlier than “in full,” but either way the trigger date matters — leaving one day early can cost the entire benefit under a full-repayment clause.