Patriotic Millionaires Applaud FTC Proposal to Ban Non-compete Agreements

Thursday, January 05

For Immediate Release

Thursday, January 5, 2023

Patriotic Millionaires Applaud FTC Proposal to Ban Non-compete Agreements

“Barring non-competes would raise wages by nearly $300 billion a year across the economy, which would give a much-needed boost to workers suffering greatly under the weight of back-breaking inflation.”

Washington, DC – Today, the Federal Trade Commission unveiled a new proposal which would ban companies from engaging in non-compete agreements, which limit workers’ ability to leave their roles to work for competitors or start rival businesses.

In response, Morris Pearl, the Chair of the Patriotic Millionaires and a former managing director at BlackRock, Inc., released the following statement:

“We applaud Lina Khan and the FTC’s new proposal to ban non-compete agreements in labor contracts. Capitalism requires competition. The only people that non-competes help are big corporations and their wealthy investors (like many of us); they do literally nothing to help working people. They push wages, competition, and productivity down and are a big reason why wages for middle-income workers especially have stagnated over the last few decades. Barring non-competes would raise wages by nearly $300 billion a year across the economy, which would give a much-needed boost to workers suffering greatly under the weight of back-breaking inflation.

Through this new rule, Khan is telling giant corporations and their C-suite executives that they can no longer milk their profit margins by effectively trapping their employees — preventing the workers from getting a job with a competitor. A non-compete agreement might be justifiable for a million-dollar per year C-suite executive. It is morally indefensible for someone flipping burgers who is looking for a better job. The era of corporations gaming the system and the entire American economy is finally coming to an end thanks to heroes like Khan, and we love to see it.”

For additional information or interview requests, please contact Emily McCloskey at emily@patrioticmillionaires.org