Dear John,

Depressing wages for all employees, discouraging innovation, and preventing entrepreneurs from starting their own businesses -- employee contracts featuring noncompete clauses prohibit workers from getting a new job at a competing business for a specified time.

That’s right, it’s a legal way for corporations to exploit workers by making it nearly impossible for them to find a better job.

The Biden administration estimates the status quo of noncompete costs workers $300 billion in wages a year.^[1] Now, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has officially ruled this represents an “unfair method of competition” and has proposed a new rule to ban noncompete clauses for good.

The law requires the public the right to comment ‘for’ or ‘against’ a new rule before it can go into effect. That means, right now, corporations are flooding the comments to try and water the rule down or stop it altogether. We need to fight back and make sure the FTC hears from us. Please add your name to our public comment in support now.

Workers become trapped by their own success, turning their work experience into a liability because, by definition, a job in the same field is competition.

In the words of President Biden:

“One in five workers without a college education is subject to noncompete agreements. They're construction workers, hotel workers, disproportionately women and women of color."

The FTC estimates that noncompetes restrict 30 million peoples’ right to start their own company or move to a new job.^[2] That’s an astounding 18% of the entire American workforce.

So we’re not just talking about Google programmers here. We’re talking about security guards, hairstylists, and warehouse workers. From the high-wage tech industry to the low-wage service industry, a ban on noncompetes would be pro-worker and could help reduce the racial and gender income gaps by as much as 9% and save consumers $148 billion on health care costs per year.^[3]

It almost goes without saying, but corporations are already trying to use their clout and power to stop the FTC from implementing the rule. We can beat them.

Working together, we will use our collective people power to overcome corporate power and win this fight. But only if you take action today. Please add your name now.

Thank you for joining me in standing up with workers.

Robert Reich
Inequality Media Civic Action

^{[1] FTC Proposes Rule to Ban Noncompete Clauses, Which Hurt Workers and Harm Competition
[2] Noncompetes Depress Wages and Kill Innovation
[3] Millions of workers are subject to noncompete agreements. They could soon be banned}