While You Weren't Looking, the Biden Administration Ended Involuntary Servitude

[tulipsandroses]

11. They absolutely can keep you from working - at least in my industry - healthcare

It’s a myth that non compete clauses are unenforceable. It might depend on the state.

Here is one case

On Oct. 8, 2020, three Wyoming nurses got a nasty shock: A judge ordered them to stop providing home health care to patients in the southwest corner of the state, where all three worked. Their previous employer, Best Home Health and Hospice, said the women had signed noncompete agreements. After they switched jobs, Best Home sued to enforce the contracts.

One of the nurses, Jennifer Brown, told me she had to commute more than two hours to find a job outside the noncompete zone. She had sole custody of her granddaughter, who was then just 1 year old. Brown struggled to find child care with hours long enough to accommodate the 12-hour workday created by her long commute. The new job also came with a big pay cut, from $36 per hour to $21.

“I burned through all my savings, and I got to the point where I had a roommate to pay the bills,” Brown, who is 47, told me in a phone interview. After about three months, she reluctantly moved to Pennsylvania, where she had family to help with child care. She has since moved to Michigan to work as an operating room nurse.
Not only did they take away my means to support myself—they took away my means to feed my granddaughter,” Brown told me. “As a nurse, I should never have that problem.”

https://slate.com/business/2021/10/noncompete-agreements-nurses-wyoming-ban-them.html

Even if the courts rule in your favor, nobody wants to spend months going to court and expensive court fees. I recall one case that a doctor won, it took a year and 75K. Not everyone had that kind of money.