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The US Federal Trade Commission wants to ban non-compete agreements:
The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) recently proposed a regulation banning employers from imposing non-compete "agreements" on their workers.
[...] The FTC summed up my feeling about non-compete clauses.
It called them "a widespread and often exploitative practice that suppresses wages, hampers innovation, and blocks entrepreneurs from starting new businesses." Thus, the Commission concluded, "By stopping this practice, the agency estimates that the new proposed rule could increase wages by nearly $300 billion per year and expand career opportunities for about 30 million Americans."
That, by the FTC's count, is one in five Americans. So it's not just tech or highly skilled jobs getting hit.
As the New York Times pointed out, it also includes sandwich makers, hair stylists, and summer camp counselors. So yes. Seriously, there are non-competes for teenagers working as counselors.
[...] Sure, there are reasonable exceptions. For example, if I leave your company, I have no problem agreeing that I won't reveal your secret sauce to a competitor or use it in my own business.
But the FTC isn't talking about getting rid of non-disclosure agreements (NDA)s — unless these NDAs are written so broadly that they act as de facto non-competes. That's a different and uglier story.
[...] While proprietary business information and technology secrets are what people often think about protecting with non-competes, that's often not the case.
Instead, it's all about making sure your workers can't leave. For example, the US fast food chain Jimmy John's used to forbid its sandwich makers from joining similar businesses within two miles of its stores for two years. The courts finally forced the company to drop that non-compete clause.
Ridiculous demands like that underline the real purpose of most non-compete agreements: keeping workers by hook or by crook for the least amount of pay.
[...] If you want happier, more productive staffers, don't handcuff them to your company with non-compete agreements. It never ends up well for anybody.
Have any of you been asked to sign an outrageous non-compete?
(Score: 3, Insightful) by turgid on Friday February 17, @08:57AM (5 children)
In the USA it seems that the Free Market is not so free and the Invisible Hand is tied up, at least when it applies to the little guy. I've heard stories about American companies coming to the UK and trying to pull such stunts but it just results in the good people leaving or not taking the job in the first place.
I refuse to engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent [wikipedia.org].
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Opportunist on Friday February 17, @12:00PM (4 children)
All the invisible hand ever did to the little guy was to give him a fisting without lube.
(Score: 2) by HiThere on Friday February 17, @04:36PM (3 children)
That's not really true, it's just that that was the most common result. But after the plagues, the "invisible hand" killed serfdom. There are other instances.
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 2) by Opportunist on Friday February 17, @05:19PM
What killed serfdom is simply a lack of workforce and way higher mobility since nobody could track people's movement, especially people moving into towns because people in towns were hit the hardest (because that's what highly infectious diseases coupled with cramped, unsanitary living conditions generally produce), so there was plenty of room inside those towns now.
There was simply a lack of workforce, that's what killed serfdom in the long run.
We almost got the same now, just this time the owners are far better organized and agreed that this won't happen again.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by JoeMerchant on Friday February 17, @10:43PM (1 child)
Just watched a documentary on the October revolution, Lenin in Russia and all that. The invisible hand of WWI ended a lot of shit, including the Czars, who were arguably little better than Stalin.
Complicated, seemingly mostly decided by luck, and incredibly impactful to the entire world ever since. All hail the invisible hand!
Україна досі не є частиною Росії Слава Україні🌻 https://news.stanford.edu/2023/02/17/will-russia-ukraine-war-end
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 19, @03:55AM
Meanwhile I kept writing my BS in the dark and still got it published.