So the article's premise is that ~30 million Americans are tied to their current employer with a legal agreement that prohibits them from seeking employment at

So the article's premise is that ~30 million Americans are tied to their current employer with a legal agreement that prohibits them from seeking employment at another firm that may offer them a better position. I agree that in principle this is a problem that should be addressed, however in practice in my personal experience it's never actually a problem. I've not been CEO/CTO of any company, but I have been team lead and/or considered a 'senior' member of the engineering team. I also have friends who've held those types of positions. Both myself and the aforementioned friends have never had one problem transitioning to a better deal elsewhere despite having signed these non-compete agreement, even in the same industry. Do others have different (bad) experiences with non-competes in practice? My assertion is that while these agreements might be sometimes enforced/pursued when talent flees, it seems exceedingly unlikely unless the person fleeing under agreement is at the very top of the ladder (meaning that way less than 30M are actually affected/limited, in practice). edit: Clarified that I DO AGREE that it's a problem in principal.