The Great American Labor Trap | NYT Opinion
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- Опубликовано: 10 апр 2023
- If you have a steady job in the United States, there’s a good chance you are bound by an employment contract that sets the terms of your work, including hours, salary and benefits. But the contract’s reach may not be limited to that job. It may also contain language that puts restrictions on your life even after you leave that job.
These are noncompete clauses, the focus of the Opinion video above. They typically prevent an employee from working for a competitor for a certain period after leaving the company.
Once the domain of high-flying executives privy to trade secrets or other highly sensitive information, noncompete clauses have become the scourge of employees of all kinds. Many low-wage workers - including hairstylists, fast-food line cooks and security guards - are now burdened by them. And the limits they impose on labor mobility have become a drag on the American economy.
In a hopeful development, the Federal Trade Commission proposed a rule this year that would ban the use of noncompete clauses in future employment contracts and void such clauses in existing contracts. The commission’s three members are soliciting public feedback on the proposal.
But the commission is under tremendous pressure from the business community not to ban noncompete clauses. The video above argues that the F.T.C. should listen to workers rather than bend to the will of corporations that are abusing them.
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Here in Finland the law regarding non-competes was changed last year. First of all, company needs to have a strong and justified reason for non-compete. If not, then it can't be made. But most important part is: up to 6 months, company has to pay 40% of employees salary during the non-compete period. Or 60% if time is longer than 6 months. There ain't much of this nonsense anymore, feel free to steal ideas 🙂
Fun fact: Laweyrs do not have none-compete. They consider them "unethical."
Exactly, because although we as a society can endure a lawyer's clientele following them from one firm to another, we can abide no such ABOMINATION for hairstylists and sandwich artists!
The pillars of civil society would come crashing down.
It's because a lawyer is far more likely to read and understand their employment contract than anyone else.
It's ridicuouls how much power the employer has over the worker in the US. It's truly a nightmare country.
Thanks for your input Russian troll.
@@vulkar59 Russia is worse. Doesn’t mean things are good here. That’s a child like state of mind
Not in all ways but yeah this, guns, politics etc… yes.
Yes...I agree...I've worked in both US and EU...the US can kiss my @ss when it comes to employment...thank god I have a degree in Computer Science and can work ANYWHERE!!...the most hilarious thing happened to me when I left my last US Job...I just didn't show up to work...boss gave me a ring and asked why I didn't come to work...that I didn't have a day off...I told him over the phone that I QUIT 🤣...he was SOOO p!ssed that I didn't give a 2 week notice...🤣..I asked him if he ever gave anyone 2 weeks notice before firing them?....hey FAIR IS FAIR
I’ve been trying to spread awareness and get people thinking about this, but sadly nobody will listen. We’re very quickly heading into a future with little to no representation of the working class within our government, partly because our government is already bought and paid-for by these same corporations and lobbyists.
Even in tech, in most cases, non-competes are absurd. Unless you're at the center of some cutting edge, proprietary research, they make no sense. It's just a disgusting ploy to keep your competitor from acquiring labor. Actual proprietary intellectual property should just be protected by other means like copyright and patents. (and don't get me started on patents...)
ALL non competes are absurd (except if someone steals proprietary corprate info and then starts a company/goes to a competitor, that would be the only exception). Even if they 'steal' clients away, then that is too bad that means a company is weak at producing products/providing services if clients can be 'stolen' from them. Too bad.
Proprietary work is nonsense. People only make a big deal about it when they think they’re important or they’re trying to trap you into doing something. It should be a red flag that you’re working in a toxic environment.
@@JohnS-er7jh That's not even gonna be judged under a non-compete though, anything actually serious is gonna have criminal liability attached (usually like corporate espionage, grand theft, etc.).
So the existence of "non-compete" in a system where the entire motivating force of all economic action is supposedly "competition" is nothing more than a blatant attempt to destroy labor power. A system that clearly defines the us and them nature of the world we live in.
Washington has laws against non-compete agreements for employees making less than $150,000 a year, but employers will have employees sign them anyways under the pretext that they are enforceable.
even you signs if these non compete clause are unreasonable they are un-enforceable
@@baognguyen2599 exactly but it’s still messed up because it’s a form of employer manipulation and coercion.
As Dennis said, “it’s the implication…”
Agreed and I'd take the risk. The company doesn't want to go to court, call their bluff.
I watched John Oliver's recent show regarding HOA's . And now I add this to the long list of why America is failing on so many levels. Such an extremely imbalanced society where the power minority get to set the rules where so many suffer as a result.
on the brightside the chuckie cheese show was awesome.
If companies really want to enforce non-competes, at minimum they should be required to pay the worker the maximum of their previous pay or any competing offer they receive, for the duration they require them to not compete.
And how is it possible to layoff a worker and then require a non compete?
One thing worth trying: When you are signing all the hiring documents, shuffle the non-compete to the bottom of the stack. If you get a chance, pull it out and put it in your pocket or throw it away. Then turn in all the other documents. I know a stockbroker who did this when he was hired. When he left to go to another firm, his company said that he couldn’t accept the job because of the non-compete. He said that he never signed one. They of course said that he certainly did sign one. So he asked to see it. They couldn’t produce it because it didn’t exist. Problem solved. It’s worth trying.
hard to do this with so many contracts being digital/online these days
I would be open about not signing. I would tell my potential employer that I’m not signing it because I can’t sign away my right to work. If that breaks the deal, so be it.
Just rename the country to Corporate States of America. It's getting absurd with lucrative laws and tax breaks for the rich and companies and strict laws and scrutiny for the middle class and poor.
The whole concept is ludicrous to me and I'm one of the tech workers it was aimed at in the first place. Employers (run by overpaid greedy rats): if you want to keep your good employees and trade secrets from leaving, them stop requiring mass amounts of free overtime, provide a hospitable work environment, and keep the pay competitive so we don't have to leave to get a raise. Then they will stay.
Or we the people could require and enforce those basic concepts by law.
Its an outrageous corporate regulation BECAUSE Americans have zero job security. Even tenured teachers are getting let go now for things that would have never occurred 20 years ago (you would have to really go out of your way to get fired from a public school teaching job when I was a kid), but in order to keep budgets down all employers look to do churn of employees, by planned layoffs ever few years, and then only hiring workers as temp/contract employees (yet the executives, not just the CEO compensation pay/bonus keeps getting bigger). A lot of executives could work for a year or two and then even if they failed they SHOULD have enough money to last a LIfetime (its not my problem that some of them live like rock stars, while their workers struggle just to pay the bills).
Funny how congressmen, CEO’s etc move around like it’s nothing. They make laws supposedly for the 1% but end up using them against the rest of us. 😢😢
So weird, wasn't America the country of freedom?
They were only referring to the slave owners. Even in my small local town hall meeting, if rent and don't own property in the community there is an expectation that you remain silent. If you are a worker you are treated as a piece of capital and capital doesn't have rights.
Freedom to exploit (as enforced by the government).
They sold everyone out in the previous 5 years & it's obvious they did
So naive 😏
Hahahaha! 🤣🤣🤣🤣
Ask your local salon, garage, bakery, drug store etc. if they make their employees sign a "non-compete" clause. Let them know that you will not patronize their business until they a) stop the practice and b) pay their workers a living wage. Senior executives are PAID for the inconvenience of a non-compete agreement...your local hairstylist is most certainly not.
that's a great idea!
on this episode of "only in america"
The other thing I would like to see addressed is taking advantage of “salaried” positions. So many companies see this as “free overtime”.
Just do some quiet quitting.
This happened to me twice.
Once, I worked for a security company in Toronto, in the early nineties.
I was prohibited from working for their client and prohibited from starting a company.
One client, owned six apartment towers, was impressed with me, wanted to start a security company with me. I was to run its operations.
Non compete agreement (two years) prevented me.
Then in 2020, it happened again, with the government of Canada.
Supply side economics. As a worker, I feel so disposable that I need to tattoo a ♻️ on my butt.
I had to first sign a non disclosure agreement....... I was not allowed to discuss any activity surrounding my place of employment. I wasn't allowed to discuss anything about the working conditions or environment. Then came the non compete agreement. I was not allowed to go into business for myself offering the same service nor was I allowed to seek employment in the same industry in the state I reside in.
Non-competes are one of the factors that make red states a nightmare to work in.
I live in Massachusetts and have signed multiple Non-competes because they are nearly unenforceable here. The burden is on the employer to prove I represent a trade secrete. Also they are not allowed to harm my future ability to earn a living.
Hi! Brazilian here. What is a red state? Is it a republican or democrat? Or something else?
@@brauliofernandesss Good question, Red State = Conservative or Republican. Blue State = Democrat or Liberal. For this conversation this generally translates to Red State = Pro Business, Blue State = Pro Worker.
Land of the free
The issue with most non-competes is that they are not separate agreements, but clauses embedded in an employment contract or a handbook that's only referenced in the contract.
In Argentina this would be outrageous. The idea that you can "force" a contract onto your employee in disgusting enough but having that contract have such negative effects on your career is crazy. How could anybody defend this?
It is unbelievable that something like this exists, even more so in the US, the so-called land of capitalism and free competition.
Noncompetes are very bad. They are used by bad bosses to screw workers. They exist in jobs such as Structural Engineering. I had one at a firm that had no competitors because it was a small community. After i was laid off, I experienced the wrath of my boss. One of the first words out of his mouth was: "Do not work for a competitor." When I went to look for work, I discovered my boss had blacklisted me. I tried to find another job to no avail. My boss refused to sign off on my Professional Engineering experience like he promised. I had to leave my home in upstate NY to find work and start to get my relevant engineering experience all over again. If these bosses want to use noncompete agreements to screw their workers, then they need to pay all expenses related to the unemployed person finding the next job. Also, I would recommend posting signs that they use noncompete agreements on their businesses.
What’d he do, call all of the competing engineering firms?
even if they have company secrets, blocking their right to work is outrageous! Thats not how non-competes should work. It’s the same with government contractors. Most Guys i know in the position just ghost their jobs. They just dont show up and take new positions.
They do this because A lot of these companies will use the Non compete as a green light to sue the hiring company. And a company would rather fire you than to get messy.
As noted in the story, dismissal doesn't automatically void non-compete clauses.
Great work, NYT...! ❤❤❤❤
That's what you get when your country doesn't sign any UN human rights convention, or in this case labour rights convention...
Distortion of market force, similar to price fixing, except it's not the price, but the livelihood of workers, Congress needs to stop this.
In a world where a lot of people don't want to work. This crap is stopping those that do want to work from being able to. This crap needs to be stopped.
It's against human rights, the guy said in the final seconds of this video. With the US government calling out other nations for their human rights abuses, there's a massive hypocrite in the room.
May these affected people find calm and respite sooner rather than later.
Ridiculous loophole by these companies
This needs to end, non compete need to only exist for employees of patent protected trade secret positions
Notbing else
Also why just ban the practice for small companies? You are just as vulnerable working for a large corporation, which has likely cornered the market with shady business practices to begin with
In Canada I was picking a gig in canada to videoedit ordinary wedding videos like 10 hour/week. The contract said that I was not allowed to work in the wedding industry like 5 years after the termination. I requested to remove the clause, then refused the offer. It’s inssne.
Just don't sign them. I run my own company and do NOT & NEVER will have a non compete clause, especially for lower paid workers. I pay my staff well, take care them, listen to them, so they don't leave. But if they, do I wish them the best.
classic boomer reply. You can't just not sign them, or else they will refuse to hire you.
That’s crazy!!! Tech companies issuing non-competes I understand but a hair stylist!? What a nightmare
Absolutely ridiculous!!
In Texas, I believe that courts tend to favor employee mobility. Although it can still be tricky to get out of these non-competes. One way that could help is proving that the employer didn't give you confidential info or specialized training. Honestly baffling the s**t we have to sign just to be able to make a living
(a recommendation for the video editor)
2:20 - Because our eyes are attracted to movement, even though the images of the 2 women on the left have been turned to black-and-white and the image of the woman on the left is in colour, I couldn't fully focus on the colour image.
Stopping the other 2 images would be more efficient, if your goal is to direct the viewer's full attention on the person speaking.
You guys in USA need stronger unions. This is crazy what you have to endure
Unions were crushed by Reagan and they never recovered. As they started making a comeback Biden went in and crushed them again. The U.S. government will not allow them to exist. Both of them more or less made unions illegal and arrested people.
Unions tend to be just as bad. They value seniority first which hurts everyone just starting out, if you can even get into the union at all without blowing the top union members.
Unbridled greed.
This needs to be fixed..
This doesn’t only make working harder, it reduces the value of our labor. The labor market is not a two-sided thing. The employer has more power in the negotiation (if there is any negotiation), and that is an intrinsic difference. This is why we need regulations and unions, and they still don’t make it equal on both sides, but they bring it closer.
This is ridiculous. Let the ex employer sue someone trying to make a living, see what the judge says. Stand up to them!
Our legal system is not based on sound ethical principles. Instead, it’s based on the “sanctity” of the law, which can and often is unethical. We have a legal system, not a system of Justice. Justice requires a sound weighing of harm/care, and fairness/reciprocity, i.e. ethics.
“The second aspect of the development of the market in labor involves the separation of workers from their instruments of production. By the time of the American Revolution when private property was the rule, the ownership of the means of production was still quite widespread. About 80% of the nonslave adult males in the United States were independent property owners or professionals - farmers, merchants, traders, craftsmen or artisans, businessmen, lawyers, doctors, and so on. By 1880, this figure had fallen to 33% and, at present, more than 90% of all adults in the labor force are non managerial wage and salary workers. In the course of this transformation to a wage-labor system, the family farm fell to corporate agri-business; craft-organized shops were replaced by the factory system; and the services became bureaucratized” (“Schooling in Capitalist America” by Samuel Bowles & Herbert Gintis page 59). In short, America started out as a society of self-employed laborers with their own property independent of any kind of managerial control. Today this is all but virtually gone.
they say we have the right to discharge our labour at will and then this... it never ends the lengths large corporations will go to securing their monopoly
This is absurd. The rich and powerful collude against the average workers. We deserve so much better for the amount of work and taxes we pay
The fact that a hair stylist has a noncompete is so embarrassingly American. Just wow.
The employer should be fined if they lose the lawsuit.
The public continues to lose more and more rights to oppressive corporations. This conversation needs to be expanded to the larger narrative of democracy and the erosion of that framework. It's important for the public to understand how all of these pieces fit into a larger autocratic puzzle.
It’s funny how anti competitive capitalism really is. All it does is ensure the rich stay rich
What does the unemployment office say/do when you tell them you can't apply anywhere, because you are bound by Noncompete?
You can apply for jobs, just not in anything related or adjacent to your previous job
@@supernova622 Yea, good point. I should of thought of that.
America is called the land of the free, but I don't feel free here... So I left the country. Best decision I've ever made! :)
Oh my God this is so unfair
Based on carbon emissions alone this should be scrapped. All that unnecessary driving.
They also do not want you to go with your client base or use the professional contacts you made while in that job, which you would “steal” from them. A ploy to keep people poorly paid and indentured.
Pretty obvious we don't live in a free country. Where is the Labor Department?
welcome to the world of anti-labor Republicans.
"Land of the free" LOL
surreal
I never was asked to sign a non compete contract. But I worked mainly for governments. I would refused to sign that. Retired now but my field has always had a shortage of qualified people. I would just move on to the next possible employer on my list if asked to do that.
A lot of people don't even realize that they are being tricked because the employers just puts that agreement into the "Hiring Packet" for you to sign during the orientation. It's usually passed off as "stuff for HR".
The issue with most non-competes is that they are not separate agreements, but clauses embedded in an employment contract or a handbook that's only referenced in the contract.
@@ncooty thanks for educating me. I have never been subject to one. Never signed a employment contract either. You both, employee and employer do a trial 90 days period is usually how government works.
I can see noncompete clauses for those who decide to open an independent business next door, taking clients and trade secrets with them. But for hourly employees, you should make employers compete on the basis of salary and benefits for your employment! Competition is the driving force of capitalism.
Is that the true face of the freest country in the world?
Freedom doesn't mean you're free
How did the FTC rule? I can't come up with any sensible reason to allow non-compete rules like this. It's just a union-busting, rights-depleting policy that should be banned.
So what you're saying is labor is so powerful that companies will punish you for not working for them
Another reason why I cannot live in the US. Most of friends migrated there and think I'm crazy.
WHAT THE F??????? America is waging war against employees! Unbelievable!
If you start a new job, and that’s in the contract, take a pen and strike all of it out before you sign. Flat out tell them this isn’t going to happen. It’s a worker’s market now, take it or leave it.
Rich get richer until we decide enough is enough and burn it all down.
American Corporate Greed at its finest. Screw the workforce is their motto.
They want us to be serfs who are here to serve
That's as straight forward as one can get.
I have been out of work since September of 2020. No unemployment benefits, no food stamps, over 700 applications put out for jobs all across the USA and NOT ONE job offer that makes it financially feasible to take. Yet every "expert" says you cant find workers. Okay, sure.
This is what happens when you let a society mutate into a dystopia that facilitates business nonsense over people.
non competes are not enforceable in California. Go California!
But your state also lets violent felons get out of jail the next day, so it kinda evens itself out.
@@ChaseFace eh, don't think so buddy
moving across an entire country just to work is not an option for everyone
And this is one of the many reasons we need to eat the rich. If there are no rich, there's no one to lobby corrupt government officials into passing laws favoring the 1% and the rest of us could actually have a chance at making a decent living.
Using ones own skill, how is that to be called stealing, you get hired FOR those skills in the first place
man...this is messed up!
This must be a legal loophole companies are abusing. It's not like they take anything proprietary with them when they leave the company for a better job. This is against the market economy.
Forced to stay at a job.... The people's republic of the United States
America should probably do something, and fast. Judging by your news stations, the country seems to be coming to an unpleasant end.
"Land of free"😂
Americans need stronger unions to put an end to this BS.
We already have the alcohol tax in the Philippines. 🇵🇭
Bru, I thought murica was all about hire and fire within 30 minutes, how tf are these people banned from quiting there job like its a prison sentence or something. like on house arrest for the rest of your life
this country desperately needs more labor competition to allow wages to finally catch up with inflation. employers have far too much power now that they have killed off most of the unions.
During the mediaeval period peasants had to request permission to leave their feudal lords to relocate elsewhere. This non-compete rubbish is just a modem version of the same controls over the have-nots.
Noncompetes... For a hair salon. Simply ridiculous.
How is this even possible? It's mind blowing what is going on in your country 🤯
The hair stylist who was asked after already being on the job 90 days is a rather ridiculous encounter and no way would I have signed that. It's Ohio of all places not some NYC or LA salon, what is so exclusive about that hair salon's opportunity or location? I literally would have laughed at my employer. Your guaranteeing yourself a future of struggle and really long drives once you sign that paper, as some of these people have experienced. Never commit to one institution like that, there is a whole world out there people. I know every scenario is different, but try not to yield without a fight. Short story, my fiance is a nurse practitioner in Chicago. For one position, we hired an attorney for about $450 to review her employment contract and part of this was the negotiation and reduction of the non-compete radius from 10 miles to 3 miles for the same type of clinic. This is a huge deal as Chicago is very dense so 10 miles is a lot. She would have declined the position if they did not change it. Never be held hostage folks. Its really crazy that they can enforce this even for people that get laid off and don't just randomly quit. I do know a few annual job hoppers, which this I'm sure is more intended to stop. Well, this law may not change, but you have more power than you realize though not without sacrifice sometimes. I understand this. But don't sign a paper for a short term gain as you may be losing in the long term as some of these people. Good luck and happy hunting on your next career.
We need strong unions to step in and protect workers from unethical behavior such as demonstrated in this video. Most of my life, I have been indifferent to unions. I thought the government did enough to protect workers. I don't think that anymore.
Wow. I've heard of non-compete agreements but I never really understood how it was being used against workers. Terrible.
I think I have heard of them mainly in programmer or technology related positions because someone could just leave with a bunch of knowledge to make or benefit a competitor. But yeah these workers wouldn’t have any specialized knowledge they are stealing. It’s just about luring clients.
Non-competes shouldn't be allowed unless the former employer is paying you not to work. That's standard practice in banking and many other high-paying industries the practice was created for in the first place.
The American nightmare continues
non-competes should only be able to be valid if the company keeps paying their full salary for the duration of the non-compete.
so many cruel traps in US-style capitalism
Is it necessary for a contractor to sign an agreement to prevent them from taking the customers they receive from a business, considering they are only renting a chair or working on commission?
If a contractor can simply work for a business for a few months or a year and potentially take away the customers the business has worked years and years hard to build, should the business owner take measures to protect their interests?