< Many workers barely recall signing noncompetes, until they try to change jobs

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You might not realize it, but you may be subject to something called a noncompete. One in five workers in the U.S. are thought to have signed agreements limiting what they can do after they leave their jobs. Some employers say noncompetes are needed to keep workers from running off with trade secrets, but the government has proposed banning them, calling them exploitive. And as NPR's Andrea Hsu reports, many employees would agree.

ANDREA HSU, BYLINE: Joby George was just out of college when he got a job with a software company focused on the pharmaceutical industry.

JOBY GEORGE: I was around 21 years old, and that was my first job out of college.

HSU: He was excited. He liked being part of a company that was helping to make the medicines people take every day. He ended up staying for 14 years, at which point he thought, time for a change. That's when he realized he might have a problem.

GEORGE: I don't remember exactly signing a noncompete because there's a lot of forms you have to sign when you get hired.

HSU: But sure enough, he had. And his company did not want him going to the new job he had lined up at another software company focused on pharmaceuticals.

GEORGE: I did not think I had trade secrets that I was going to bring. In fact, I was hired to work on a completely new product that had nothing to do with what I worked on previously.

HSU: Joby George fought his old company in court with a lot of support from his new company. And eventually, the case was dropped. Others aren't so fortunate. Researchers estimate that some 30 million workers are subject to noncompetes and not just college-educated, white-collar workers.

NAJAH FARLEY: A lot of workers in logistics - security guards, house cleaners, workers at cafeterias.

HSU: Najah Farley is with the National Employment Law Project. In her previous role with the New York State Attorney General's Office, she worked on one of the most famous noncompete cases against the fast food chain Jimmy John's. She says workers bound by noncompetes often can't leave for better-paying jobs. So she's glad the Federal Trade Commission has now moved to ban these agreements because low-wage workers don't have the means to fight as Joby George did or sit on the sidelines while they wait for their noncompetes to expire.

FARLEY: You're not going to be able to go back into the workforce with the same power to command, like, a higher wage if you've been sitting out for a year not developing your skills.

HSU: Robin Catalano faced this problem after quitting her job blogging and managing social media for a home decor company. She had signed a noncompete clause that said if she left, she couldn't work for another home decor company for a year. That was a problem given her expertise.

ROBIN CATALANO: Working in that kind of an industry, you learn about fabrics. You learn about how textiles are put together, where they're made, the design process.

HSU: She says it'd be one thing if she'd been the CEO and was leaving to start up a rival business, but her plan was to become a freelance writer.

CATALANO: You know, I'm a sole proprietor. I am providing for myself and my cats. So, you know, it's not the same.

HSU: Nevertheless, Catalano says she's a rule follower, so she didn't pitch herself to the industry she knew so well for a whole year.

CATALANO: That's sort of the critical moment for a new business, right? Those first couple of years is when you're really building your clientele and getting your name out there.

HSU: She's nowadays much more careful about what she signs and tries to negotiate out any language restricting her future moves. Now, there are other ways to protect trade secrets. Kevin Vozar is a senior director with Cabins For You, a vacation property management company in the Great Smoky Mountains. He says the company has plenty of confidential information he wouldn't want an employee to walk off with, like their marketing strategies and pricing tools, because competition is stiff.

KEVIN VOZAR: We are all going after the same property owners to add inventory to our platform. And we're all, you know, also going after that same finite group of vacationers who are coming here.

HSU: But at Cabins For You, most employees don't have noncompetes. Instead, they sign nondisclosure and nonsolicitation clauses, which prevents them from divulging company secrets like client lists. Still, Vozar thinks noncompetes may be necessary in places like research institutions, biotech. And so...

VOZAR: I would not agree with a blanket, you know, getting rid of all noncompetes nationwide for all industry spaces. I think that's being a little shortsighted because I do believe that there is room for noncompetes in a very limited spectrum.

HSU: Many companies would agree. The fight over the FTC's proposed ban is expected to be fierce. Andrea Hsu, NPR News.

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