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Intern presents state-by-state comparison of noncompete laws, highlights health-care exceptions
Summary
Helen Argraves, legislative intern to the House Commerce and Economic Development Committee, presented a spreadsheet compiling recent state noncompete laws and amendments, noting most recent activity targets health-care professionals and that statutes vary widely on duration, geography and income limits.
Helen Argraves, legislative intern for the House Commerce and Economic Development Committee, told members Friday that she compiled a spreadsheet summarizing recent state noncompete bills and statutes and that most of the recent activity addresses health-care practitioners.
"The vast majority of the ones that have been passed in the past two to five years were related to health care," Argraves said, presenting the committee with a sortable spreadsheet of statutes and amendments.
Argraves said the statutes differ widely. Many jurisdictions limit enforceability by duration (commonly one to three years) or geographic scope; some include income thresholds. She cited Illinois as banning noncompete agreements for employees who earn under $75,000 a year and said Maryland sets a $350,000 threshold for health-care practitioners. Argraves told the committee that several states impose procedural requirements on enforcement: for example, Connecticut places the burden of proof on the party seeking to enforce a covenant and requires enforceability findings that the restriction protect a legitimate business interest and is reasonable in time and scope.
She described a few recent state actions that address health-care-specific concerns. Arkansas amended its statute to void covenants that prevent a physician from practicing within that physician’s scope of practice; Utah added a carve-out that prevents noncompetes tied to health-care platform registration; and Wyoming’s recent law includes a physician-specific section and a provision letting patients request notice about where a practitioner has moved. Argraves also noted Louisiana’s statute provides exceptions for rural hospitals and hospitals serving medically underserved areas.
Argraves said four states have what she described as full bans on employee noncompetes (Oklahoma, North Dakota, California and Minnesota) while most states impose partial restrictions, and Vermont currently has no state statute on noncompetes.
Committee members asked Argraves to add broader employee-focused noncompete statutes to the spreadsheet and to mark states that are silent on the topic so the committee can compare Vermont’s current stance to other states.
Argraves concluded by offering to expand the spreadsheet to include general employee noncompete provisions and franchise-specific entries for the committee to sort and analyze.
