FTC Bans Non-Competes | Roundup #19
Also: Workers are seeing improvements in sleep and leisure time, other links
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The FTC Bans Non-Competes
The FTC, which oversees antitrust enforcement in the US, issued its final rule that bans nearly all non-compete agreements in the US last month.
Non-competes are restrictive clauses that appear in 20% employment contracts and prevent workers from leaving for a competitor firm or starting a competing startup (often for more than two years). In case you’re in need of a bigger refresher, we wrote about the non-compete proposal last year, and addressed some of the counterarguments.
So what happens now? Well, the ban won’t go into effect until September 2024, and even then it faces lawsuits from industry trade groups like the US Chamber of Commerce.1
If and when the law finally goes into force, the FTC expects benefits for workers, startups, and innovation. Their estimates share that the average US worker will benefit from a $524 salary increase each year that the ban is in effect. And because of the glut of non-competes in the healthcare sector, the FTC also expects the ban to reduce healthcare costs by $190 billion over the next decade.
Workers Getting More Time for Sleep and Leisure
In April, we learned how work is changing in a way that will give us more time back – for sleep and for leisure.
According to a new study from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, workers are able to sleep in significantly longer on work-from-home days compared to in-office days. On average, workers get 1.9 more hours of shut-eye. Meanwhile, a separate survey showed that 27% of remote workers have apparently said they have fallen asleep during a meeting. (For this strategy to pay off, Workonomics recommends you turn your camera off first.)
Meanwhile, more business figures are starting to realize that the four-day work week will probably become a bigger thing. Steve Cohen, founder of hedge fund Point72, said he expects more businesses to move to a four-day work week, and consequently people will soon have more leisure time on their hands. This was apparently one of the reasons that his firm was behind a monster $3 billion funding round for The PGA Tour. Golf has been surging, with Americans golfing 83% more on weekdays in 2022 than they were in 2019.
Other countries are also starting to mandate that employers institute processes for workers to request different work schedules. Workers in Singapore will soon have the right to request a four day work week, more work from home days, and staggered work times, based on a new guideline issued from the national labor agency. The guideline will go into effect in December, but is technically not enforceable by law.
Other Links from the Last Month
🎬 The 2024 DC Labor FilmFest features the movies Matewan (1987), Office Space (1999), Unrest (2022), The Promised Land (2023), The Old Oak (2023), and Working Class Goes to Hell (2023). Add ‘em to your list!
🚕 Minnesota legislators proposed compromise rideshare regulation (in coordination with the Minneapolis city council) to avoid Uber and Lyft leaving the state’s capital in protest of a city ordinance. Now, the rideshare giants are doubling down, threatening to leave the entire state if the bill is passed. (Axios)
👷🏾♂️ Trade work is on the rise with Gen Z (Wall Street Journal)
🏀 The Dartmouth men’s basketball team forms the first players’ union in the NCAA (The Atlantic)
🪧 Conde Nast narrowly avoided a strike during the Met Gala (which it hosts) by agreeing to a tentative agreement on a contract with the Conde Nast Union (Variety)
🚘 Alphabet’s Waymo launched its paid robotaxi service in LA with 50 cars (NBC News)
🦾 Microsoft releases its 2024 Work Trend Index Annual Report. One interesting finding was that 71% of managers would hire a lesser-experienced candidate with AI skills over a more-experienced one without AI skills
🏠 Senior employees left SpaceX, Apple, and Microsoft in droves after they mandated return-to-office policies (Washington Post)
🛞 73% of Volkswagen workers in Chattanooga, Tennessee vote to unionize, joining the United Auto Workers (UAW). Meanwhile, a union vote for a Mercedes-Benz plant in Vance, Alabama to join the UAW is underway.
🇪🇸 Spain is the latest European country to end its ‘golden visa’ program, which sought to attract wealthy real estate investors, in the face of a housing crisis (New York Times)
⚖️ Supreme Court makes it easier to file workplace discrimination claims (Washington Post)
⚖️ Supreme Court also likely to side with Starbucks in challenging NLRB, limiting the labor board’s ability to get court intervention on labor violation complaints (New York Times)
📉 Economist Tyler Cowen on the worrisome trend of declining labor share of national income (Bloomberg)
It makes sense that the US Chamber of Commerce would oppose the non-compete ban as many of its members are large monopolistic corporations that would rather not have to compete for workers if they can avoid it.