(2020-01-29) Stoller Free Our Doctors Engineers Daycare Workers Cheer Coaches Etc From Fear

Matt Stoller: Free Our Doctors, Engineers, Daycare Workers, Cheer Coaches, etc. from Fear. One thing I keep hearing over and over from people in different businesses is a sense of fear. Roughly 80% of the interviews I do start with ‘you’re not going to use my name, right?’ This is as true of conversations with cheer coaches as it is of tech engineers, printers, artists in Hollywood, office supply vendors, and software entrepreneurs. People are terrified of retaliation, and this fear is pervasive across the political economy

Well today I’m going to explain one mechanism inducing this fear, and a way that you can actually push the Federal Trade Commission to block it. It’s known as a non-compete contract

The extent of non-competes is so extreme that it’s likely holding down wage growth and preventing the formation of new companies. (StartUp)

These agreements empower every mini-Napoleon in American life.

Traditionally these kinds of agreements bleed into trade secrets law, and were usually applied to top engineers with very specialized knowledge.

But today non-competes extend over huge swaths of the economy, everyone from camp counselors to check-cashing workers to hair stylists to cheer coaches to doctors.

increasingly scholars are recognizing that California’s advantage in technology comes in part because it doesn’t allow non-competes to be enforced

On a very basic level, non-competes strike me as obviously illegal. We have antitrust laws designed to foster competition, yet the literal nickname of these contracts is non-COMPETE.

Here’s how you can have an impact. Last month, finally, the FTC held a workshop on non-competes, and is considering taking action. And they are soliciting feedback from the public. If you want to weigh in, you can offer your views to the FTC here: https://www.regulations.gov/docket?D=FTC-2019-0093

And the FTC really does take comments from the public seriously... They don’t like your comments, but they listen to them.