The New York Legislature is set to make another attempt to ban non-competes for all but highly compensated individuals. At the end of the 2023 legislative session, the New York Legislature passed a bill that would have banned non-compete agreements for all employees regardless of wage or income level. Governor Kathy Hochul vetoed this bill while expressing her support for a more limited ban stating that she wanted to “strike a balance” between protecting middle-class and low-wage workers and “allowing New York’s businesses to retain highly compensated talent.”
On February 10, 2025, New York State Senator Sean Ryan introduced a new bill (S4641) that would ban non-compete agreements that responds to some of Gov. Hochul’s criticisms of the previous bill.
The Proposed Ban Remains Very Broad
Similar to the previous bill, the definition of “non-compete agreement” is incredibly broad. The bill purports to apply to “any agreement, or clause contained in any agreement, between an employer and a covered individual that prohibits or restricts such covered individual from obtaining employment, after the conclusion of employment with the employer.” Based on this definition, the bill could be interpreted to apply to forfeiture-for-competition, garden-leave, and other similar covenants used to protect competitive interests in addition to traditional non-competes.
Despite the broad definition of “non-compete agreement,” the bill also retains some exceptions from the previous bill....
In This Article: WBA +0.78% Walgreens agreed to pay the United States $300M, plus interest at a rate of 4.00% per annum accruing from October 20, 2024, of which $150M shall constitute restitutio...