In Non-Compete Suits, Is the Employee's Age Relevant?

It's a given that courts consider a wide range of facts - perhaps too wide - when ruling on enforcement actions. Already burdened with figuring out the competitive inflection points between warring companies on a truncated record, courts also must balance a completely unrelated issue. Hardship. As in, how would enforcement of a non-compete through a court order harm an employee?

This inquiry, part of the widely used "rule of reason" test, mandates a look at softer facts that really have nothing to do with the merits of the case. Instead, the collateral inquiry all but invites the court to take into account evidence that is highly personal .

This begs a question that few courts tackle head-on. How relevant is age?

I started thinking about this after I read an article by Josh Zumbrun from the July 14 Wall Street Journal ("Lower Job Churn Hurts Young Workers" at p. A2). The article describes a compelling economic rationale for mobility among younger workers, and consequently could be an endorsement that younger workers should be released from non-compete enforcement. The article discusses Federal Reserve Chairwoman Janet Yellen's concern over the lack of mobility among younger workers. The following passage is particularly illuminating:

By hopping from employer to employer, especially early on, workers find jobs better-suited to their skills, build their resumes, bid up their salaries and boost lifetime earnings prospects. They eventually settle down and change jobs less frequently.

Sounds reasonable.

Is this a consideration, though, for courts? It could be, depending on the strategic direction a defendant wants to take. In the context of non-compete battles, time is of the essence and a defendant spends a lot of time reacting. It's conceivable that a defendant could obtain an opinion from a labor economist on the issue of hardship, although that is a hefty expense few can afford.

I used to think of the age factor from a different perspective. Older workers tend to be less mobile and not as attractive on the open market. That could militate against enforcement, since courts occasionally (perhaps rarely) comment on this when looking at the hardship issue. The Wall Street Journal article sort of flipped my thinking and takes a longer term view of the economic impact of not changing jobs.

The tension is interesting because courts used to confront fact patterns where the older, seasoned worker developed goodwill, sales contacts, and enough embedded knowledge that her move to a competitor seemed most likely to pose a threat. In our more technology-driven economy, though, it often is the younger worker who imparts the most value to a company or who is more likely to innovate by developing a new product or service. The economics of job mobility could be seen as militating against non-compete enforcement for these younger, valuable workers.