My wife currently works for a mortage company in Michigan that has a problem with retaining employee's, especially in the IT department. So much so they thought that offering employee's a $40,000usd forgivable loan would be a great way to keep(trap) employee's.
This loan is also a contract that binds you to 3 years of service. After the 3 years are up the loan is forgiven. After the 3 years, the $40k loan is added to your salary/check to tax purposes. Which they will also offer an additional 1 year/10k loan to pay for said taxes. If you leave before the 3 years are up you have to pay the loan back in full plus interest. If you are fired you have to pay it back, since we are an at will state, they can let you go for no reason. They can also just decide to terminate the contract whenever they feel like it and ask for the money back.
Also during this time, you are not allowed any bonuses or extra raises outside of being promoted.
I think this is the most insane thing ever, this could potentially screw over a lot of employee's. This company also doesn't shy away from suing its ex employees as well.