What Next: TBD | Tech, power, and the future - Why the Feds Want to Kill Noncompetes
Slate Daily Feed
Slate
3.9 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 9 July 2016
⏱️ 22 minutes
🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
You might think of noncompete agreements as mostly limited to highly skilled, highly paid tech workers to protect trade secrets. But one-third of workers bound by noncompetes make $13/hour or less: fast-food workers, security guards, and the like.
Noncompete clauses not only give employers leverage over their employees—both during and after their employment—but studies have shown the agreements are a weight on the economy, which is why the FTC is angling for a federal ban.Â
Guest: Elizabeth Wilkins, director of the Office of Policy Planning, Federal Trade Commission
Host: Lizzie O’Leary
If you enjoy this show, please consider signing up for Slate Plus. Slate Plus members get benefits like zero ads on any Slate podcast, bonus episodes of shows like Slow Burn and Dear Prudence—and you’ll be supporting the work we do here on What Next TBD. Sign up now at slate.com/whatnextplus to help support our work.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | This episode is brought to you by Krakhan. |
| 0:03.0 | crypto is like finance, but different. |
| 0:06.0 | It doesn't care when you invest, trade or save, do it on weekends, |
| 0:11.0 | or at 5 a.m. |
| 0:12.0 | Or on Christmas Day, at 5 a.m. or on Christmas day at 5 a.m. |
| 0:15.2 | crypto is finance for everyone everywhere all the time. |
| 0:19.4 | Visit crackin.com slash see what crypto can be to learn more |
| 0:22.8 | don't invest unless you're prepared to lose all the money you invest this is a high risk |
| 0:26.2 | investment and you should not expect to be protected if something goes wrong Greetings. I hope everyone is staying safe and well. |
| 0:43.0 | As you know, these are some difficult times that we're going through right now. |
| 0:47.0 | Times that were actually quite unimaginable just a couple weeks ago, |
| 0:50.0 | but together we will get through this. |
| 0:58.0 | Prudential security has an active Facebook page. It's filled with everything from videos like this one, |
| 1:01.0 | about COVID in the spring of 2020 to post celebrating the holidays |
| 1:05.4 | Thanksgiving, Christmas, Veterans Day, even pictures of its security guards |
| 1:11.0 | being recognized for their work. |
| 1:13.6 | But what Facebook doesn't show |
| 1:15.3 | is that those guards, who worked in a handful of different states, |
| 1:18.7 | were forced to sign non-compete agreements |
| 1:21.5 | that restricted who they could work for once they left the company. |
| 1:24.5 | Minimum wage security guards who had non-compete that prevented them from working for a competing |
| 1:29.7 | company within a hundred miles and with threatened damages of a hundred thousand dollars. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Slate, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Slate and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.