New York City, which for years has been a trailblazer in
employee-friendly workplace legislation, is at it again. Late last
month, the NYC Council proposed a bill that would prohibit
non-compete agreements for low-wage workers. The bill would
also bar non-competes for all other employees, if the potential
that the employee might be asked to sign a non-compete is not
disclosed, in writing, at the beginning of the hiring
process. As is often the case with NYC employment
legislation, this is a first-of-its-kind bill.
More particularly, the bill states, quite simply, that
"[n]o employer shall enter into a covenant not to compete with
any low-wage employee of such employer." The term
"covenant not to compete" is, in turn, defined as any
agreement "between an employee and an employer that restricts
such employee from performing 1) work for an employer not a party
to such agreement for a specified period of time; 2) work in a
specified geographical area for an employer
