President Joe Biden signed an executive order that would open up competition for employees among businesses and cut back on onerous restrictions on consumer products to minimize the grip major corporations have on their employees and products, ABC News reports.
The order asks the Federal Trade Commission to review regulations governing non-compete clauses that would allow workers to leave an employer for a higher-paying job without fearing retaliation. That change could impact 30- to 60-million American workers, from fast food cooks to C-suite executives.
Biden’s order also provides the owners of electronics and appliances to do repairs on the item or have repairs done on it without violating its manufacturer’s warranty. This would apply to things from iPhones to refrigerators.
“Offering higher wages, more flexible hours, better benefits. But what we’ve seen over the past few decades is less competition and more concentration that holds our economy back. We see it in big agriculture, in big tech, in big pharma. The list goes on,” Biden said. “Rather than competing for consumers, they are consuming their competitors. Rather than competing for workers, they’re finding ways to gain the upper hand on labor. And too often, the government has actually made it harder for new companies to break in and compete.”
The order covers 72 different items for industries from fast food to airlines.