Project Syndicate - The Trump Administration’s Latest Assault on Workers
Legal director Sandeep Vaheesan co-authors a piece with Alvero Bedoya, former commissioner at the Federal Trade Commission, and current Senior Adviser at the American Economic Liberties Project, arguing that the Trump administration’s suspension of the FTC’s non-compete ban represents a major setback for American workers, reversing one of the most significant pro-labor reforms in decades and reinforcing corporate control over the labor market.
WASHINGTON, DC – US President Donald Trump won the 2024 election partly on the promise of a new “golden age” for American workers, protecting them from the forces that have been eroding their livelihoods and well-being. But while Trump has taken action on this front, all of it has been against workers.
Upon returning to the White House, Trump indefinitely suspended the US Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s heat-safety regulations, even though extreme heat contributes to an estimated 600-2,000 worker deaths annually. His administration also quietly scuttled former President Joe Biden’s efforts to secure overtime pay for millions more workers. In August, Trump issued an executive order eliminating many federal workers’ collective-bargaining rights. And last month, his administration dashed hopes that working people would be freed from non-compete clauses.
Tens of millions of workers in the United States, in nearly all lines of work and at all income levels, are bound by clauses impeding their ability to leave their jobs. In public comments to the Federal Trade Commission in 2023, workers shared harrowing stories of such clauses keeping them trapped in low-paying, unsafe, or hostile work environments and preventing them from pursuing their entrepreneurial dreams. Doctors told the FTC that non-compete clauses had forced them to move or leave the state just so they could practice medicine. One nurse-practitioner, who experienced workplace discrimination on account of her pregnancy and maternity leave, wrote that her work contract’s non-compete clause made her feel like a “prisoner” at her job.
Many respondents expressed fear of legal consequences if their boss discovered they were looking for new work. In fact, the FTC found that non-compete clauses depress labor-market mobility even when employers did not and could not enforce them in court; the mere threat of legal action is often enough to intimidate workers into staying. Beyond the mental anguish, this leads to lower wages, depressed income growth, and less entrepreneurship.
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