Non-Compete Agreements Ruin Employee's Lives
May 15, 2017
The May 14, 2017 New York Times Sunday Business Section ran an in-depth feature article exploring how employers are requiring employees more and more to sign non-compete agreements. As the article points out, employers use to reserve the use of non-compete agreements for senior management. That has changed recently and has spread to the lowest rung employees. Because court battles over the validity of non-compete agreement require a lot of attorney time, attorneys who represent employees must charge on the hour and most employees cannot afford to pay those fees. One or two of the employees interviewed in the Times article went bankrupt or deeply into debt all to protect their ability to find a better job. Additonally, there are ramifications that ripple throughout our society if this employer practice continues to spread which include depressed wages, indiviudual(s) inability to find better jobs at better pay and restricting competition in the economy. Moreover, this aggravates already widening inequality in our economy especially since unions have lost their clout.
The best defense against non-competes is to seek legal counsel before you sign one. The lawyers at Green Savits, LLC can help by assisting in negotiating these agreements before signing on the dotted line. Call us at (973) 965-8571 or contact us through our website.