Non-Compete Ban 2026: Which States Eliminated Them — State-by-State Breakdown

# Non-Compete Ban 2026: Which States Eliminated Them — State-by-State Breakdown

> **Quick answer:** As of 2026, six states fully ban non-compete agreements — California, Minnesota, Montana, North Dakota, Oklahoma, and Wyoming. If you work in any of these states, your non-compete is void, full stop, regardless of when you signed it. Another twelve states ban them for workers below specific salary thresholds, which means tens of millions of Americans are sitting on agreements their employer cannot legally enforce. Washington State just passed a near-total ban in March 2026, effective June 2027.

The non-compete sitting in your employment file might already be worthless — and your employer hasn't said a word about it.

An estimated 30 million American workers are bound by non-compete agreements. After the FTC's sweeping 2024 nationwide ban was killed in federal court and formally abandoned in September 2025, most workers assumed the fight was over. It isn't. State legislatures didn't stop legislating, and in 2025 alone, thirteen states either passed new restrictions or had previously-enacted protections take effect. This article gives you the definitive state-by-state picture for 2026: which states eliminated non-competes entirely, which restrict them by salary, and exactly what happens to agreements that were signed before the laws changed.

*This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Consult a qualified attorney for legal matters specific to your situation.*

## The 6 States That Fully Banned Non-Competes