Bijan Sabet

Coming to Beacon Hill: A bill to get rid of employee non-compete agreements

About a year ago I wrote about the negative impacts of employee non compete agreements. I wrote that we should get rid of them in Massachussets and in other states where non-competes are routinely enforced.

Since then the collective voice for innovation and open competition has increased quite a bit. There have been a number of a panels discussing this topic openly. We’ve talked to members of Governor Patrick’s staff. Venture capitalists and entrepreneurs are speaking up. And so are local tech leaders.

Earlier this week, I received an email from Caroline Huang. Caroline is someone I met shortly after writing my post on the subject and she has been a firm supporter in the effort to get rid of employee non-compete agreements. She told me that she has been working with her local elected officials to get a bill introduced to the state legislature.

And today State Representative Will Brownsberger announced today that he will introduce legislation that would abolish employee non-compete agreements in Massachusetts.

This is a fantastic milestone. Many thanks to Rep Brownsberger for taking this on and a special thanks to Caroline for her hard work & determination to make this happen.

But we have a lot of work to do. Large companies in this state want to maintain the status quo (even though they have a double standard for their california employees).

So we need your help. Please spread the word, get involved, contact your local state representative and tell them that you support Rep Brownsberger’s efforts.

Yes we can :)