I hate non-compete contracts — and I’m not alone. They restrict workers’ ability to move from job to job, which in turn reduces salaries. The only way I ever got a significant raise during my career was when I changed employers. So, when the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) banned non-compete agreements, I, and a few million employees, were pleased as punch.
That happiness was brief. Before the ban could even take effect on Sept. 4 (two days after Labor Day in the US), District Court Judge Ada Brown in Dallas stopped the FTC from enforcing it, saying the move “exceeded its statutory authority,” was “arbitrary and capricious” and would have caused businesses “irreparable harm.”
Yeah. Right.
I’ve been an employee, a freelancer, and I’ve owned small businesses. Non-compete agreements have only hurt me in the first two cases, and I never found a reason as a boss for requiring my employees to sign a non-compete contract clause.
I know there are times when these agreements do make sense. If I invented a better mouse trap, I wouldn’t want my engineers taking the cheese to rival Acme Giant Mouse Trap Inc. But more often than not, the non-compete clauses I’ve seen are just there to trap employees.
You might think these things are only a pain for people like me who work in the tech and creative space. You’d be wrong. Employees also locked into their jobs include hairdressers, janitors, security guards, and fast-food workers. Who knew that the ability to say, “Would you like fries with that?” was proprietary? Not me.
2024-09-06 21:15:02
Link from www.computerworld.com