Dear President-elect Biden,
Due to the fiscal and public health crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, millions of workers remain unemployed and workers who have jobs face increasing precarity and coercive practices in the labor market. Employers’ use of non-compete clauses is an example of a coercive practice that threatens all workers.
Non-competes require workers, following separation from their current employer, to refrain from accepting employment in a competitive line of work or establishing a competing business for a specified period in a particular geographic area. Because employers define what constitutes a “competitive line of work” or “competing business,” non-compete clauses can be broad in scope and close off all prospective employment options. Non-competes can have durations of two years or more and cover a county, metropolitan area, or even the entire nation.
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