WASHINGTON (NEWSnet/AP) — U.S. companies would no longer be able to bar employees from taking jobs with competitors under a rule approved by a federal agency Tuesday.

The Federal Trade Commission voted Tuesday to ban measures known as noncompete agreements, which bar workers from jumping to or starting competing companies for a prescribed period of time. According to the FTC, 30 million people — roughly one in five workers — are now subject to such restrictions.

The Biden administration has taken aim at noncompete measures, which are commonly associated with high-level executives at technology and financial companies but in recent years have also ensnared lower-paid workers, such as security guards and sandwich-shop employees. A 2021 study by the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis found that more than one in 10 workers who earn $20 or less an hour are covered by noncompete agreements.

Business groups have criticized the measure as casting too wide a net by blocking nearly all noncompetes. They also argue that the FTC lacks the authority to take such a step.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has said it will sue to block the measure, a process that could prevent the rule from taking effect for months or years. 

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