Brian Hartstein Quoted in Chicago Lawyer Article About Employer Non-Compete Agreements
Quarles & Brady partner Brian Hartstein was included in a Chicago Lawyer article about the steps employment attorneys need to take to ensure their clients are making appropriate use of non-compete agreements.
The article noted the extra attention non-competes have received in recent years, given that they often can have an unfair impact on worker mobility. Hartstein, the Chicago office chair of the firm’s Labor & Employment Practice Group, cited recent changes to Illinois law as an example of protections being put in place.
In the original Illinois Freedom to Work Act, the law zeroed in on prohibiting employers from requiring “low-wage employees” to enter into non-competes. However, Pritzker’s amendment increases the salary threshold to $75,000 annually. Meanwhile, the average annual salary in Chicago is $62,078, according to online employment agency ZipRecruiter. And this is a trend across the country, according to Brian Hartstein, a partner at Quarles & Brady.
“The initial version of this act was focused on folks making low hourly wages,” he said. “Other states have done similar things, but now you’re seeing the growth to not just lower wage workers; now the threshold here is at $75,000 for non-compete. This is like what