Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by exhilaration 1684 days ago
This. I've worked in the New York metro area for my entire working career, and non-competes are one reason why California will always, always win when it comes to fostering startups. From what I can tell, no other state has made them illegal, and none ever will because they're in the interest of employers.
2 comments
lotsofpulp 1684 days ago
Washington has it, but Microsoft and Amazon were able to water it down so that it excludes higher compensated employees ($107k salary for 2022, which basically excludes people in tech/medicine/law/engineering). Foolish decision by WA legislators, especially when they are in prime position to poach business in the same time zone as CA with only a nominal state income tax.

https://lni.wa.gov/workers-rights/workplace-policies/Non-Com...

link
UnpossibleJim 1684 days ago
Out of curiosity, how do these non-competes work with remote work situations? Are they applicable to the state the business is in or the state the worker is in? Is this one of the reasons so many software companies are pushing to get coders back in the office, just to get rid of these little legal questions?
link
lotsofpulp 1684 days ago
Good question. Seems like it could get hairy. I would have assumed the employee’s state of residence takes precedence, but then there is this case where CA courts upheld a non compete that was entered into in MI before the employee moved to CA:

https://www.mintz.com/insights-center/viewpoints/2015-07-17-...

link
mlinksva 1684 days ago
Oklahoma and North Dakota. Various other states have restricted non-competes recently, particularly for low wage workers https://faircompetitionlaw.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/No... and more are working on it https://faircompetitionlaw.com/changing-landscape-of-trade-s...

I'd emphasize "one reason" and de-emphasize "always" :)

The site linked above likes to throw cold water on the idea that non-competes are bad for workers, startups, etc (e.g., ND and OK aren't famous for their tech industries), see blog posts at https://faircompetitionlaw.com/ ... my bias is the other way (particularly enjoying https://ssrn.com/abstract=2517604), but the evidence is complex. Fortunately the aforementioned changes should generate new evidence.

link