2024, The Year Non-Competes Die?
Hi Everyone,
In a new article published in OnLabor, my colleague Sandeep Vaheesan and I detail what an extraordinary year 2023 was against non-competes, which inhibit workers from moving freely, depress wages, and lock many in unfair work environments. Thanks to the numerous efforts from state and federal regulators, 2024 could be the year when non-competes are completely abolished in the United States.
The first paragraph is shown below. The full article can be read here.
According to a 2019 survey, as many as 60 million working people in the United States are subject to non-compete clauses. These contracts prevent workers up and down the income scale and across occupations from leaving for a better job or starting their own business in their own community, state, or even anywhere in the country. Non-compete clauses rob workers of a critical source of leverage—the effective right to leave—and depress wages and wage growth over time and lock people into abusive and discriminatory work environments. But their end may be near. After years of research, reporting, and advocacy (including by our organization the Open Markets Institute), federal regulators and state legislatures took major steps to eliminate these coercive contracts in 2023. While major policy and legal fights lie ahead, 2024 may be the year in which we finally eliminate these contracts in the United States.