re: Non-Compete agreements are now illegal nationwide!

In my industry, you are almost always going to have to sign a NC to make any kind of money. Hell, even the paper pushers and drivers have to sign them at some companies. When I left one of the bigs in the industry (think Airgas, Grainger, Motion, etc.), the first thing they did was try to hold the NC over me to keep me there, even though they wouldn't come off any money to keep me. Thankfully I convinced them I wasn't going to a direct competitor and was outside of their market basket and they left me alone, but the intent of a NC has completely changed to just be a weapon for the company and to keep employees from seeking higher paying jobs with better work environments.