What concerns me about non competes is when companies like KFC and McDonalds require low level employees to sign onerous non competes preventing them from working for a competing company. This forces people to stay in current positions and prevents them from ever working anywhere else. Employers can keep wages low knowing the employee has no option to go elsewhere. Happened to a friends 16 year old who started working at a local mall for a pizza place and when they were offered a different job at the mall for a completely different field they were prevented by the agreement which stated they could not compete within a certain distance. Whether that is legal or not is irrelevant in this case. No one is going to file a lawsuit for a 16 year old p/t employee and sue a large company over a first job employment contract in this sort of situation. Switching from flipping burgers to selling clothes should be possible for a teenager to try new jobs out. Saying no and preventing any role at the mall because you want to keep the employee is not fair!
