If you’ve relied on noncompete agreements to protect your business and your business secrets, you’re in for a bit of a bumpy ride: The Federal Trade Commission just voted to ban noncompete agreements for all workers.
This ban not only looks forward, preventing employers and employees from entering into new agreements, but invalidates current noncompetes for everyone but senior executives (defined as people earning “more than $151,164 annually who are in a ‘policy-making position.'”)
Here’s what you need to know.
No new noncompetes
As soon as this goes into effect, which will be 120 days after it goes into the federal register, it will not be possible to create a new noncompete–for anyone. Not even your senior executives.
To keep reading, click here: The FTC Just Voted to Ban Noncompetes for Everyone. Here’s Everything You Need to Know
Question for you: Does this also affect the agreement I signed stating I will stay for 2 years in exchange for a signing bonus?
Many of your articles link to Inc. but I don’t have a subscription. Is there somewhere else that I may read your articles?
If training someone who then leaves immediately for a competitor is a concern, perhaps the company needs to review it’s pay and working conditions.
(Plus, of course, if no one can use non-competes, if your company isn’t willing to train entry level employees, odds are, no one else is, either, and there will be no new employees entering the profession until somebody wises up. As noted, this is the same rules for everyone.)
Of course, a solution for the real estate appraiser (or anyone in the similar positions of providing apprenticeships) is to enter into an agreement to employ their apprentices years after they complete the training! God forbid an employer in should actually commit to keep someone their employee for a set time period!
If a jurisdiction is at will employment – and there is no contract committing the employer to keep the employee employed, then non-competes should generally be banned.
And people really do need to distinguish a non-compete terms from non-disclosure terms, and terms regarding taking things like lists of customers/prospective customers. Numerous contracts from employers to prospective employees contain all of those terms, no just non-compete. What is legit is non-disclosure and similarly, not non-competes.