


Gov. Kathy Hochul plans to veto a bill that would have banned the use of noncompete agreements in New York after a furious lobbying effort by Wall Street and other powerful industries that forcefully opposed the measure, according to two people with knowledge of the negotiations over the bill. Ms. Hochul was expected to veto the bill later on Friday.
Democrats in control of the State Legislature passed the bill in June, wanting New York to join other states that have cracked down on the use of noncompete agreements, which companies use to bar employees from working for a competitor for a set amount of time after leaving a job.
The bill’s supporters argued that the agreements have unfairly trapped an array of workers, from hairstylists to engineers and doctors, who sign away their right to leave for a competitor.
But Ms. Hochul, a fellow Democrat, believed the ban went too far, and she attempted to narrow its scope so that it applied only to lower wage workers. The ban was opposed by high-powered banks and other large corporations that heavily rely on noncompete agreements to prevent top employees — from high-level executives to bankers and brokers — from taking clients and intellectual property with them to a competitor.
As the year-end deadline to act on the bill drew closer, Ms. Hochul sought to negotiate amendments this week that would appease both business groups and Democratic state lawmakers. Negotiations broke down on Friday, according to the two people, who were not authorized to discuss the veto publicly before the governor’s official announcement. Among other things, it appeared that the sides could not agree on how to calculate an income threshold that would have kept the ban for low-wage workers but would have allowed the agreements to persist for well-paid workers like those in the financial services industry.
Mike Murphy, a spokesman for the Andrea Stewart-Cousins, the State Senate majority leader, said Senate Democrats were “disappointed.”