diff --git a/lerobot/scripts/server/gym_manipulator.py b/lerobot/scripts/server/gym_manipulator.py
index 92e8dcbc..26ed1991 100644
--- a/lerobot/scripts/server/gym_manipulator.py
+++ b/lerobot/scripts/server/gym_manipulator.py
@@ -1069,6 +1069,29 @@ class ActionScaleWrapper(gym.ActionWrapper):
         return action * self.scale_vector, is_intervention
 
 
+class GripperPenaltyWrapper(gym.Wrapper):
+    def __init__(self, env, penalty=-0.05):
+        super().__init__(env)
+        self.penalty = penalty
+        self.last_gripper_pos = None
+
+    def reset(self, **kwargs):
+        obs, info = self.env.reset(**kwargs)
+        self.last_gripper_pos = obs["observation.state"][0, 0] # first idx for the gripper
+        return obs, info
+
+    def step(self, action):
+        observation, reward, terminated, truncated, info = self.env.step(action)
+
+        if (action[-1] < -0.5 and self.last_gripper_pos > 0.9) or (action[-1] > 0.5 and self.last_gripper_pos < 0.9):
+            info["grasp_penalty"] = self.penalty
+        else:
+            info["grasp_penalty"] = 0.0
+
+        self.last_gripper_pos = observation["observation.state"][0, 0] # first idx for the gripper
+        return observation, reward, terminated, truncated, info
+
+
 def make_robot_env(cfg) -> gym.vector.VectorEnv:
     """
     Factory function to create a vectorized robot environment.
@@ -1144,6 +1167,7 @@ def make_robot_env(cfg) -> gym.vector.VectorEnv:
     if cfg.wrapper.ee_action_space_params is None and cfg.wrapper.joint_masking_action_space is not None:
         env = JointMaskingActionSpace(env=env, mask=cfg.wrapper.joint_masking_action_space)
     env = BatchCompitableWrapper(env=env)
+    env= GripperPenaltyWrapper(env=env)
 
     return env