Hello,
I wanted to make sure you saw Economic Liberties’ latest policy brief. It provides a roadmap for state lawmakers to ban the use of noncompete clauses, training repayment agreement provisions (TRAPs), and other exploitative restraints on worker mobility.
The Federal Trade Commission finalized a rule last month banning noncompete agreements in almost all circumstances. The rule was immediately challenged in court by corporate interests. As a result of both these challenges and the political uncertainty surrounding the FTC rule, we developed a policy brief for state lawmakers to lay out how state legislation can complement the FTC’s efforts as well as offer community-tailored solutions to boost worker mobility and freedom.
This new report draws on lessons from our work in the states over the last twelve months, including the successful passage of a noncompete rule in Minnesota in 2023. Banning noncompetes is a popular issue for state lawmakers, with polls showing a large majority of the public in favor of such laws and regulations. We’ve worked in close collaboration with the Student Borrower Protection Center and Governing for Impact to advocate for state legislators to make their bills as comprehensive as possible and have developed resources and model legislation to guide them in that effort.
I also want to share two fantastic pieces on building worker power to counter monopolies from our team. Our state and local director Pat Garofalo co-wrote an op-ed with Terri Gerstein, Director of the NYU Wagner Labor Initiative, for The Hill on how state leaders can update their antitrust laws to address the imbalance between worker and monopoly power. And Senior Advisor Elizabeth Wilkins was on the Pitchfork Economics podcast talking about the reinvigorated FTC and how it is taking on corporate power on behalf of not just consumers, but workers and honest businesses. You can listen to it here.
Thank you for reading, sharing, and interacting with our work. If you’re an advocate or lawmaker looking to ban noncompetes or boost worker power in your state, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.
Warmly,
Nidhi Hegde
