(Note: This episode originally ran in 2021.) Millions of American workers in all sorts of industries have signed some form of noncompete agreement. Their pervasiveness has led to situations where workers looking to change jobs can be locked out of their fields. On today's episode: how one man tried to end noncompete contracts in his home state of Hawaii. And we update that story with news of a recent ruling from the Federal Trade Commission that could ban most noncompete agreements nationwide. This episode was hosted by Erika Beras and Amanda Aronczyk. The original piece was produced by Dave Blanchard, edited by Ebony Reed, and engineered by Isaac Rodrigues. The update was reported and produced by Willa Rubin. It was edited by Keith Romer, fact-checked by Sierra Juarez, and engineered by Josephine Nyounai. Help support Planet Money and get bonus episodes by subscribing to Planet Money+ in Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org/planetmoney. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy
For a while now, you've probably been hearing about book bans, how they're gaining momentum everywhere in Texas, in Missouri, Florida and Pennsylvania.
On the Code Switch podcast, we're taking a look at why, why are so many books suddenly considered so dangerous to kids?
Listen to our new series on the Code Switch podcast from NPR.
Last week, the Federal Trade Commission made a big announcement.
It was about non compete agreements, these agreements that prevent workers from leaving their jobs for competitors or to start new rival businesses.
The FTC said starting later this year, the vast majority of non compete agreements cannot be enforced anymore.
They will effectively be banned.
We reported an episode a few years ago about where non competes came from.
So we're going to play that episode now.
And later on, we will give you an update about when or if that new FTC ruling will go into effect.
This is Planet Money from NPR.
Back in the nineties, Jeff Hong's an ambitious software engineer living in Los Angeles, working for Microsoft, living the life.
His job was to find and work with Microsoft's latest clients.
So I would go off from place to place, helping people build fairly large systems.
So say the Disney stores need back end software or Citibank needed to improve their online banking.
Jeff would help them build, build those systems.
And then after a few years, I convinced my corporate masters that we should open an office in Hawaii.
Don't we all want to open offices in Hawaii?
But for Jeff, Hawaii is home.
I was born in Hawaii.