A non-compete clause for a New York company is created to protect the investment a company has made in training its employees from working against them from a competing company. But that doesn’t mean that the company can keep an employee from moving on with his or her life. After a person has gained skills and experience in a field of work, he should be able to take those skills and pursue a new career.

Employees are protected by New York laws, which say a non-compete agreement is deemed unfair and unenforceable if it violates the following criteria:

• The clause is too unfair to the employee, unreasonably favoring the company
• The agreement isn’t specific enough, leaving the company with too much influence of what the rules are
• The clause violates what can be seen as beneficial to the general public
• The agreement has an unfair waiting period or too far of a reach geographically
• The clause violates the workers’ rights to take their knowledge and experience back into the field

The laws are set to protect the employers and what they’ve done to succeed in their practice, but their rights can’t infringe on an employee’s rights to improve his life in a reasonable manner.

Everyone has the right to a better life, and if you feel that this right is being infringed on, you should contact a New York business lawyer. Don’t let an unreasonable agreement affect your life. Order 3 Reasons That Your Employment Agreement May Not Be Worth The Paper It's Printed On, written by the NY non-compete agreement lawyers at the Law Offices of Jonathan M. Cooper.

It’s your life. You should be able to live it the way you want to.