With its recently passed Act Relative to Noncompete Agreements for Low-Wage Employees, New Hampshire has joined a  growing list of states (including Maryland and Maine) that have enacted laws barring employers from enforcing non-competition agreements against low-wage workers.  The New Hampshire law prohibits employers from enforcing agreements against employees earning less than 200% of the federal minimum wage ($14.50/hour as of 2019) which limit their ability to work for another employer for (1) a specific period of time (2) in a specific geographic area, or (3) in a specific industry.  The prohibition takes effect September 8, 2019.
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The recently passed Act to Promote Keeping Workers in Maine is poised to dramatically alter the status of restrictive covenants in Maine.  The Act accomplishes this by: (1) prohibiting employers from entering into no-poach agreements with one another; (2) barring employers from entering into noncompetes with lower wage employees; (3) limiting employers’ ability to enforce noncompetes; (4) mandating advanced disclosure of noncompete obligations; and (5) imposing a time delay between when an employee agrees to the terms of a noncompete and when the noncompete obligations actually go into effect.  In addition to barring the enforcement of noncompliant noncompetes, the Act
Continue Reading New Maine Law Bans No-Poach Agreements and Dramatically Limits Noncompetes