Non-compete clauses

There has been much written about non-compete clauses over the weekend, Bijan Sabet kicked off the discussion, which was picked up by GigaOM, and then by Xconomy.

I am with Bijan on this one, non-compete clauses harm both employees and employers. Employees because it restricts them from earning at their full potential, and employers because it denies them access to the widest possible pool of candidates. Ultimately this hurts the economy. And there is plenty of evidence, both within the US and outside the US, to show that restricting labour mobility does more harm than good.

The last few times I was presented with a non-compete clause, I pushed back and said that either I would compensated me for the loss of income during the non-compete period, or the non-compete clause was removed. In both cases the non-compete clause had no business in the contract (in one case I was consulting, in the other case it was illegal), and in both cases they were removed.