America’s trustbusters plan to curtail the use of non-compete clauses. Good

Three-quarters of Americans who work, do so for a firm. They have contracts setting out their pay, holiday, benefits and sometimes the appropriate way to dress (although not in journalism). A lot of contracts also say whether employees may work for a competitor if they leave the company. It is hard to know what share of American workers are restricted by these non-compete clauses, but the available evidence suggests it may be as high as one in five. More worrying, these clauses are as likely to apply to workers operating deep-fat fryers in fast-food kitchens as they are to workers operating in the conference rooms of white-shoe law firms. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has these clauses in its sights, on the grounds that they are anticompetitive and suppress wages.

Fans of non-compete clauses argue that scrapping them by decree will invite the state into the realm of private contracts, a symptom of regulatory excess. They have a point, but the FTC’s case is stronger.