can an employer really make you pay for on the job training?

Question

i work for petsmart as a groomer. I've been doing it for 2 months now and for various reasons I no longer want to. One of the reasons being, i want to work my other job full time. My other job has nothing to do with animals or grooming them. I live in a state with at will employment. There is only one clause and that clause is the compete clause. By going to my other job I certainly will not be competing with petsmart. In order to become a groomer there you need to go to their academy. When you have worked enough as a bather/brusher they ask you if you'd like to go and if you say yes they send you to a store with a master stylist where they teach you the trade. They pay you 40 hr weeks at your pay rate to be there. They even offer travel compensation for this. You have to pay 632 bucks for your equipment which is taken out of your paychecks weekly after you've completed training.
They make you sign a contract before you go stating that the value of your training is...

worth 4000 dollars within the first year and 2000 within the second and nothing thereafter...also in this agreement you agree to not compete against them or groom any dogs for anybody commercially or privately within this time span (that's MAINLY what this contract seemed to be about..competing against them)..
After academy they send you back to your home store where you train under your manager and groom 100 dogs for free (not on commission...the job is commission based)...and this is the point i'm at. I'm about 20 dogs into my field training and I've decided that this isn't the career for me.
my question is, can they legally, really get 4000 bucks from me for putting in my two weeks...i understand that i need to pay back for my grooming kit..but since im in an at will employment state and they took the chance on me to go to their little..non accredited schooling...do you think they will pursue me and make me pay.
keep in mind i am not going to groom any where else and can...

easily and gladly provide proof of my new job. I'm even willing to turn in my equipment and sign a new contract stating i'm not going to use their trade...plus i haven't even recieved my certificate yet stating i'm qualified to groom. as far as i see it this was an apprenticeship...
they also did not provide me with a copy of this paperwork.
what do you guys think...??
and if they could make me pay it would they really go through all that trouble, i mean surely groomers must drop out all the time and surely a big corporation couldn't have the time or effort to sue everyone of their employees right?

and if they can and i still do decide to quit...(paying it would suck, yes i know) would it ruin my credit at all? and how much could they make me pay a month...what if i could only afford 5 bucks...its definitely not a loan because it says on the contract interest free.

Answer 1

I would bring this up with your local labor commission. If you signed a contract stating all of this, you may be stuck. However, your labor commission will be able to tell you for sure since they will know what the laws of your state are concerning this.

Answer 2

Don't know for sure. But even if they take you to court and get a ruling that you need to pay they can get nothing except a bad spot of your credit if you do not pay. instead of quiting just work so few hours and go home early so that they do not want to work you. Just do things so that they do not want you to work there or work so few hours that they may not want to keep you.