Too Many Workers Are Trapped By Non-Competes - Bloomberg

[applegrove]

https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2018-11-12/non-compete-clauses-trap-too-many-american-workers

The Editorial Board at Bloomberg

"SNIP.....

Why have wages been so slow to rise at a time when demand for workers has pushed the U.S. unemployment rate to its lowest point in nearly half a century? One answer: contracts that tie millions of unspecialized workers to their jobs.

In far too many cases, these so-called noncompetes are an unwarranted restriction on freedom to transact and a drag on growth. If Congress won’t act to narrow their scope, states should take the lead.

The desire to keep workers from defecting to rival employers is as old as employment itself. As far back as the 15th century, English masters, such as dyers or blacksmiths, made apprentices promise not to set up shop nearby. Courts often refused to uphold such agreements, viewing them as coercive. As a House of Lords decision put it in 1893, “There is obviously more freedom of contract between buyer and seller than between master and servant or between an employer and a person seeking employment.”

More than a century later, the idea is back in vogue, as companies exploit the power that comes with increasing size and market concentration. In the U.S., new employees are commonly required to sign contracts that forbid them to work in the same industry for a given period. The practice makes sense for highly paid jobs involving big investments in training, and for staff with valuable proprietary knowledge. But it isn’t being limited to those kinds of employees.

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[ck4829]

1. Only a matter of time before companies start locking employees in overnight

[applegrove]

2. Or during the day...that went well 100 years ago. We seem to be erasing

all that we learnt in the 20th Century. At least the republicans seem to be.

[MrsCoffee]

3. We already had reason to go to California, but this was a factor in our decision.

Non-competes are void in California.