Portside

Noncompete clauses in workers’ contracts, which prevent them from accepting employment with a competitor, have drawn public scrutiny and the FTC is proposing to ban them. But worker advocates say restrictive covenants that constrain the mobility of workers are noncompetes by another name.

It’s an attempt to recreate the power dynamics of the employer-dominated company towns of old—with workers unable to change employers if they want to continuing working in the same industry.