In response to these workers’ stories, as well as to overwhelming economic evidence, the FTC took decisive action earlier this week, voting in favor of a rule to ban nearly all noncompetes scheduled to take effect in August. Another found that employers don’t even value noncompetes that much: Washington state businesses were not willing to raise workers’ pay even by a few thousand dollars to be able to impose noncompetes on them. For example, the final rule wisely includes “stay-or-pay” contract terms, like Training Repayment Agreement Provisions (TRAPs) that require workers to pay their employer money in order to leave a job; these sneaky “traps” function like noncompetes and would have obviated the new protections for many workers.