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Hop to it : Don't like your job? Quit for a rival firm.
赶快跳槽：不喜欢你的工作？辞了去对家公司吧。
A fifth of American workers have a non-compete clause in their contract, barring them from leaving to join a rival.
五分之一的美国工作者在劳动合同中有一条竞业条款，禁止他们辞职后加入竞争对手的公司。
Owing to a new rule issued by the Federal Trade Commission on April 23rd, these clauses may soon be voided.
因为联邦贸易委员会4月23日发布的一项新规定，这些条款可能很快就会被废除。
Advocates hope this will inject dynamism into the American economy and lead to stronger wages; critics warn it will stifle investment.
倡导者希望废除竞业条款可以为美国经济注入活力，并让工资更高；批评人士警告称，这样做将扼杀投资。
The debate about non-compete clauses is an old one, dating back to Europe in the 1400s.
关于竞业条款的争论由来已久，可以追溯到14世纪的欧洲。
Courts generally came down on the side of apprentices trying to escape the clutches of their mentors. In the Industrial Revolution, though, views shifted.
法庭通常会支持试图摆脱师傅控制的学徒。然而，在工业革命期间，人们的观点发生了转变。
The main argument in support of non-compete clauses-then and now-is that they protect firms with an understandable interest in defending trade secrets.
无论是过去还是现在，支持竞业条款的主要论点是，这种条款保护了公司在捍卫商业机密方面可以理解的利益。
With them in place, companies become more willing to make hefty investments and train up workers, confident that they will reap the benefits from both.
有了它们，公司就更愿意进行巨额投资和培训工作者，并相信能从这两方面获得好处。
A recently published study by Jessica Jeffers of HEC Paris found that when American states make non-competes easier to enforce, firms increase their physical investments by as much as 39%.
巴黎高等商学院的杰西卡·杰弗斯最近发表的一项研究发现，当美国各州使竞业条款更容易执行时，公司的实体投资增加了39%。
Unfortunately, many bosses abuse the power that such control gives them.
不幸的是，许多老板滥用了这种限制所赋予他们的权力。
In one risible example from 2014 a worker at Jimmy John's, a sandwich chain, shared a copy of the company's contract terms, which barred staffers from jumping to any competitor within two years of leaving.
在2014年的一个可笑的例子中，三明治连锁店Jimmy John's的一名员工分享了该公司的合同条款，其中禁止员工在离职后两年内跳槽到任何竞争对手的公司。
Sandwich artists are not the only Americans doing basic jobs who are so constrained.
做着初级工作却还受到限制的美国人不是只有三明治店员。
Studies have found that about 10% of those on minimum wages, from barbers to waiters, face similar restrictions.
研究发现，从理发师到服务员，领取最低工资的群体中约有10%的人面临类似的限制。
Even for highly skilled employees, the merits of these limitations are questionable.
即使对于高技能员工来说，这些限制的好处也是值得怀疑的。
California, home to many of the world’s most disruptive tech firms, has long prohibited companies from stopping employees who wish to join rivals.
加利福尼亚州有许多世界上最具颠覆性的科技公司，该州长期以来一直不允许公司阻止员工加入竞争对手。
Ms. Jeffers's research points to a trade-off: although existing firms benefited from job-hopping restrictions, she found such rules led to a 7% fall in new companies entering knowledge-intensive sectors.
杰弗斯的研究指出了一种利弊权衡：尽管现有公司受益于跳槽限制，但她发现这些规定导致进入知识密集型行业的新公司减少了7%。
They thus represent an impediment to innovation.
因此，这表明竞业条款阻碍了创新。
The tide has been turning against non-competes in America. At least ten states have blocked their use for low-wage workers.
在美国，意见趋势已经变成反对竞业条款。至少有十个州已经禁止对低薪工作者使用竞业条款。
On April 23rd the FTC upped the ante, voting for a sweeping ban.
4月23日，联邦贸易委员会加大了力度，投票支持全面禁止竞业条款。
Under the rules, existing non-competes for executives making over $151,164 a year can be maintained, but all other non-competes will no longer be enforced, and employers will be barred from creating any new ones, including for executives.
根据规定，对年收入超过15 1164美元的高管的现有竞业条款可以保留，但所有其他竞业条款将不再执行，而且雇主将被禁止设立任何新的竞业条款，包括对高管。
The FTC anticipates that the ban will lift the rate of business creation by 3% and increase earnings for the average worker by about $500 per year.
联邦贸易委员会预计，这项禁令将使企业创办率提高3%，并使普通工作者的平均年收入增加约500美元。
