Aspects of non-competes are not enforceable in some places--and enforcement may require payments to the ex-employee in others (e.g. MA). But some non-compete conditions are generally enforceable even in CA as I understand it (e.g. if you sell a business, you can't set up shop the next street over and contact all your former customers). But they're not illegal as far as I know.

> if you sell a business, you can't set up shop the next street over and contact all your former customers

The article as about non-compete for workers. Non-competes for M&As are not mentioned.

The FTC is specifically proposing a carve-out for selling a business. So it is mentioned. The parent made a blanket statement about non-compete legality.

CA, ND, OK, and DC seem to be the ones of note. A slew of other states have thresholds under which non-competes are invalid, but above which they are. Washington's, as an example, are here: https://lni.wa.gov/workers-rights/workplace-policies/non-com...

Those thresholds mean most software engineers are subject to non-competes.