Gregory Korte

USA TODAY

WASHINGTON — After speaking out about non-compete agreements in May, Vice President Biden said he heard horror stories.

A Nebraska teacher who couldn't take a summer job selling pet food; a 56-year-old Connecticut salesman who had to eat through his retirement savings for two years; a North Carolina doctor who couldn't continue to practice medicine in the same city.

Now, the White House is calling for a crackdown on non-compete clauses and other employment practices that it says unfairly limit the ability of workers to jump from one company to another.

"Folks, no one should have to sit on the sidelines because of an unnecessary non-compete agreement," Biden said in a statement Tuesday. "We have the most dynamic, productive workers in the world, but they can’t reach their true potential without freedom to negotiate for a higher wage with a new company, or to find another job after they’ve been laid off."

The battle against non-compete agreements is the latest front in an Obama administration initiative to ensure more consumer- and worker-friendly competition in the marketplace. Obama signed an executive order in April directing federal agencies to foster more competition in industries they regulate. So far, that's resulted in new and proposed rules for cable set-top boxes and airline bag fees.

But it's also an example of Obama's state-and-local strategy of getting other lawmakers to take action when Congress can't or won't. Laws governing non-compete agreements vary from state to state, and the White House is encouraging states to ban them for certain workers and industries: low-wage workers unlikely to know trade secrets, health and safety workers, and those who were laid off through no fault of their own.

To get around Congress, Obama turns to city halls

Three states ban non-compete agreements outright: California, North Dakota and Oklahoma.

But even within those states, the practice often continues, said Jason Furman, chairman of the president's Council of Economic Advisers. Sophisticated workers understand their rights, but many others unknowingly agree to the non-compete clause. "So it introduces a level of randomness and unfairness," he said.

In 2014, eight Silicon Valley companies — including Apple and Google — paid $415 million to settle a civil class action suit allegedly they colluded to hold down wages of computer programmers through "no-poaching" agreements.

One company that refused to take part in the scheme: Facebook.

"We take the position that the free movement of labor is a net positive for Facebook," said Facebook human resources chief Lori Goler, who's supporting the Obama administration effort. "We don’t believe that people should have to stay at Facebook if it’s not a good fit for them."

Some employers say the agreements can hurt companies and the economy by making it more difficult to match the right talents to the right jobs.

"It suppresses employees from finding new jobs in their chosen fields," said Mark Chandler, Senior Vice President of Cisco Systems. "But it also suppresses entrepreneurs from assembling teams to drive innovation."

The White House is also encouraging a data-gathering effort, led by salary data provider Payscale and the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, to find out more about how companies use non-compete agreements.

Last week, the Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission announced they would launch criminal investigations of companies caught colluding on salaries or agreeing not to hire each other's employees.