[petsfed]

>Get a lawyer, ensure it's not enforcable, then sign it.

There's a lot of daylight (and a few thousand dollars in legal fees) between "would be thrown out upon casual perusal" and "is not technically enforceable, but we'd have to litigate in front of a sympathetic judge".

The issue has never, EVER been whether or not Jimmy John's non-compete is enforceable, its that a person leaving a Jimmy John's for a $0.50/hr raise at the Burger King across the street can't afford to litigate it, and the Burger King franchisee definitely won't pay to litigate it.

For those of us who can afford a lawyer to analyze a non-compete clause (and the barest of legal fees necessary to show in front of a judge such a clause), they aren't really an issue. But that's actually a pretty small subset of the population.

[theluketaylor]

The biggest problem with non-completes is that they have been weaponized to suppress wages against people without resources to fight them. Fast food employees should never be subject to them; it's absolute lunacy that assembling a burger involves any truly special training or unique skill that a company should be able to prevent someone getting a better job across the street later that same day.

I'm not in favour of banning non-completes entirely since I think they actually serve some function for highly specialized and compensated positions, but I do want to see pretty high levels of regulation. Non-completes shouldn't be allowed for any position making less than 3x the median wage. Any position making less that that simply isn't special enough for a non-compete to actually be protecting actual secrets. Companies should also be required to buy out any non-complete time at the employee's total compensation rate, including the average of the last 2-5 years of bonuses (whichever timeframe is highest) and any additional perks (like health care in the US since that can be a huge expense).

[freedomben]

> Fast food employees should never be subject to them; it's absolute lunacy that assembling a burger involves any truly special training or unique skill that a company should be able to prevent someone getting a better job across the street later that same day.

Are you sure this is really a thing? It seems dubious to me but I haven't been in fast food for 20 years so things may have changed.

[acdha]

The most famous example went down in flames so hopefully it’ll deter others:

https://www.cnbc.com/2016/06/22/jimmy-johns-drops-non-compet...

[thwayunion]

Totally agreed. My advice is targeted at laborers and employers who can afford the fight.

BTW, there's a lot of money to be made here by an enterprising lawyer. The laws have been moving fast and most companies -- even those that should know better and will get very little sympathy -- aren't playing by the rules.