I'm not an expert, but IIUC the financial industry tends to pay full "garden leave" for employees serving out their noncompete terms https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garden_leave , presumably partly for this reason.
This is correct — very common practice in trading (I am currently sitting out one now!).
Generally they are 3-12 months in duration, although recently we are seeing much longer ones (24 months) from firms such as Citadel.
You generally draw full base salary, and healthcare comes from COBRA.
US-wide ban of non competes is good for hiring firms (they get the talent immediately), bad (allegedly) for firms from whom the talent is leaving, and mixed for the workers themselves (for whom the garden leave can be sometimes received as a paid sabbatical). It will be a really big change.
Long-term garden leave is still unequal as you forfeit things like bonus (which can be a significant percentage of TC) and you can't practice the skills of your employment for months or years. Imagine going on leave from the financial sector in 2007 and coming back in 24 months later, for example.
And you highlight how allowing non-competes with garden leave is a mixed bag. If someone's fine with taking a year or two off while getting some fraction of the total compensation they were getting previously, I suppose it can look like a good deal. But that would be pretty unsatisfactory for a lot of people mid-career with kids in college.
IIUC we're generally talking about full base salary in the case of financial-industry "garden leave", though obviously missing out on the possibility of bonus payments could really sting for many in that business. And obviously being "out of the game" for a significant amount of time can hurt, especially if you're in an area where things are changing quickly.
From the offers I was getting back in the day, finance runs on low base salary and huge bonuses. Bonuses of 200% of the base salary are not unheard of. Full base salary can still mean quite a bit of pain.
In the most recent contract I saw from a trading firm, they would only do this if they let you go, and not for cause.
So for sure no "garden leave" if you quit, and also not if they can find a reason to fire you. And of course no bonus, which is often a majority of total comp.
Possibly this sort of thing may vary by state. There might also be some room to negotiate depending on how much they want you.
Generally they are 3-12 months in duration, although recently we are seeing much longer ones (24 months) from firms such as Citadel.
You generally draw full base salary, and healthcare comes from COBRA.
US-wide ban of non competes is good for hiring firms (they get the talent immediately), bad (allegedly) for firms from whom the talent is leaving, and mixed for the workers themselves (for whom the garden leave can be sometimes received as a paid sabbatical). It will be a really big change.