On May 17, 2023, US Senator Rob Wyden (D-OR) announced the release of a long-awaited report on the US Government Accountability Office’s multi-year investigation into the use of noncompete agreements across the US labor market. In announcing the release, Senator Wyden said that the GAO report “highlights the problems of noncompete agreements – particularly their impact on limiting workers’ fundamental freedom to change jobs,” and pledged to “fight tooth and nail for fair labor laws that protect workers and promote the creation of new businesses in Oregon and nationwide.”

In March 2019, Wyden and a bipartisan group of US senators …

The National Labor Relations Board’s top lawyer, Jennifer Abruzzo, issued a General Counsel memo today instructing the Labor Board’s Regional Directors of her position that noncompete clauses for employees protected by the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) (ie., nonmanagerial and nonsupervisory employees) in employment contracts and severance agreements violate federal labor law except in limited circumstances. The memo, while not law, outlines her legal theory which she will present to the National Labor Relations Board, which makes law primarily through adjudication of unfair labor practice cases. The memo instructs the agency’s field offices of the position that the …

For the last decade, one of the biggest issues in the Illinois noncompete law has been what constitutes adequate consideration for a post-employment restrictive covenant, apart from employment lasting at least two years after the agreement was signed. The “24 month rule” set forth in Fifield v. Premier Dealer Services, Inc.2013 IL App (1^st) 120327 has caused much head-scratching, and the Illinois legislature was essentially punted on the issue in the recent amendments to the Illinois Freedom to Work Act, 820 ILCS 90/1, et seq. (effective as of January 1, 2022). (Full disclosure: One of the authors …

As expected, on May 24, 2023, Governor Tim Walz signed a new law banning noncompete agreement in Minnesota. The ban will be effective for such agreements entered on or after July 1, 2023.

By enacting the Omnibus Jobs, Economic Development, Labor and Industry appropriations bill (MN SF 30035), Minnesota becomes only the fourth state (along with California, Oklahoma and North Dakota) to ban noncompetitors.

The new law renders void and unenforceable all covenants not to compete entered by employees or independent contractors on or after July 1, 2023. The only exceptions are noncompetitive agreements relating to the sale or …