N.J. Noncompete Proposal Would Make Post-Employment Pay the Norm

It isn’t often that an employer is required to keep paying workers who’ve left the company. But it’s one approach to restricting employee noncompete agreements that is up for consideration and facing stiff business opposition in the New Jersey legislature.

Continuing pay for former employees who are bound by noncompetes—a policy sometimes called “garden leave"—is a derivative of a common employment practice in the UK, and conditions could be right for the idea to expand in the US. Offering post-employment pay can have benefits not just for the workers but also for businesses, even if they’re loath to have it ...