Laws regarding employer-employee agreements noncompetition agreements covenants not to compete vary from one state to another in their enforceability. Some states have specific statutes limiting application of such agreements to certain professions or specific situations.
Senator Chris Murphy and Senator Todd Young introduced the Workforce Mobility Act of 2023, which, for the most part, would ban employers’ use of noncompete agreements. The Workforce Mobility Act would vest the FTC and the U.S. Department of Labor with enforcement authority,
state or the other. so if we really want to see the important impacts, and i should say they are important, we estimate that wages could increase by $250 to $300 billion if noncompete clauses were banned. we want to see those kind of impacts for workers. elizabeth, this is a complicated aspect, but i have to get it in. intellectual property rights. isn t that a justification for maintaining noncompete agreements? we don t want you to go across town and take our proprietary information. that is a justification that we hear from employers. employers have other options. 97% of workers who are subject to a noncompete are also subject to something like a nondisclosure agreement or other protections that employers can have to protect their confidential information. there s also trade secret law. all of these other alternatives don t have the severe consequences for workers. i never as i said at the outset, i never knew. i just figured i m a radio guy.
The internet exploded in 2014 when it was uncovered that Jimmy John’s Sandwiches, a company with annual revenue in the billions, required the minimum wage “sandwich artists” at its franchises to sign restrictive noncompete agreements. Under the terms of those agreements, the workers promised that during their employment and for a period of two years .