Hi Quartz members,
“Should I stay or should I go?” The Clash once wondered. The song, ostensibly, was about quitting a tempestuous relationship. But it may just as easily have been about a non-compete contract. “If I go, there will be trouble,” Mick Jones, the song’s lead vocalist, agonized. Lina Khan would empathize.
Under Khan, the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is proposing a ban on non-compete agreements, which prevent a firm’s employees from moving to another company or starting a business in the same field. It’s a decision that could affect roughly 30 million Americans. Khan, the FTC chair, argued that non-compete restrictions drive down wages and prevent better working conditions. Banning non-competes, she estimated, could increase workers’ earnings by $300 billion per year.
Non-compete agreements depress employee earnings by precluding the wage increases that come from switching jobs. A recent report by the…
