Colorado, Indiana, Montana, Oregon, Utah pass new restrictive covenant laws, many more noncompete bills

Updated June 29, 2025 to count Oregon’s law in the tally and remove Kansas’s law from the tally.

With legislative sessions in or headed into recess in many states, it’s time for an update on the status of noncompete bills around the country.

In my prior update, I noted that there had been 75 noncompete bills in 35 states, with two new laws: Arkansas and Wyoming.

Arkansas’s new law prohibits noncompetes for physicians.

Wyoming’s prohibits noncompetes for everyone except “executive and management personnel and officers and employees who constitute professional staff to executive and management personnel.” It also makes clear that physicians are included within the ban.

Shortly thereafter, as expected, Virginia passed a bill to expand its low-wage worker exemption.

But it did not end there.

Since my last post, more bills have been filed (we’re up to 87 bills in total this year), including in two more states (37 states in total), and bills pending in Colorado, Indiana, Montana (two in Montana), Oregon, and Utah have been signed into law, while a bill in Florida has been sent to Governor DeSantis for signature. (Kansas also passed a new law relating to restrictive covenants more generally.)

First, the new laws, then the stats of the bills…

Colorado prohibits noncompetes (and nonsolicits) for certain healthcare providers

On June 3, 2025, Colorado Jared Governor Polis signed an act “Concerning Limitations on Restrictive Employment Agreements.”

The new law, which will take effect on August 6, 2025, prohibits the use of noncompetes and nonsolicitation covenants for physicians, physician assistants, advanced practice nurses, certified midwives, and dentists. It also prohibits restrictions on the ability of departing healthcare practitioners covered by the law to notify their patients of their continued practice, their new contact information, and the patient’s right to choose their healthcare provider.

The new law also changes the limitations on the use of noncompetes in the context of the sale of a business. Specifically, the new law ties the duration of the noncompete to the value of what was received in proportion to the cash compensation received by the healthcare provider in prior years.

Indiana prohibits noncompetes (and more) for a broader range of physicians

On May 6, 2025, Indiana Governor Mike Braun signed a new law, effective July 1, 2025, to further limit the use of physician noncompetes.

The new law prohibits the use by hospitals of noncompetes, nonsolicits longer than one year, and no-service agreements with their physicians. The law also places certain limitations on the use by hospitals of training repayment agreements (a.k.a. “TRAPs”) and certain other restrictions with their physicians. The only use of physician noncompetes by a hospital that will be permitted after July 1, 2025, are for physicians who sell their practices, if the physician owns more than 50 percent of the practice.

Montana prohibits noncompetes (and nonsolicits) for a broader range of physicians

Montana has two new noncompete laws, both affecting physicians.

First, on April 16, 2025, Montana Governor Greg Gianforte signed a new law into, effective April 16, 2025, expanding Montana’s prohibition on the use of noncompetes and nonsolicitation agreements for the certain healthcare providers.

Prior to this law, noncompetes and nonsolicits could not be used (in the ordinary course) for: psychiatrists; addiction medicine psychiatrists; addiction medicine physicians; social workers; professional counselors; addiction counselors; marriage and family therapists; or behavioral health peer support specialists.

The first new law adds: naturopathic physicians; registered professional nurses; advanced practice registered nurses; and physician assistants.

Then, on May 19, 2025, the Governor signed a second new law that, effective January 1, 2026, expands the scope of the ban to all physicians and expressly permits the use of certain repayment obligations (including but not limited to repayment of “a bona fide loan, relocation cost, signing bonus, education expense, and tuition repayment expense”).

Oregon prohibits noncompetes (and more) for a broader range of physicians

On June 9, 2025, Oregon Governor Tina Kotek signed a new law, effective June 9, 2025, imposing significant limitations on the use of noncompetes, certain nondisclosure agreements, and other agreements for physicians and nurses.

Utah prohibits noncompetes for certain temp healthcare workers

On March 26, 2025, Utah Governor Spencer Cox signed a new law, effective May 7, 2025, prohibiting healthcare platforms (enabling healthcare providers to find shift work) from using noncompetes for the temporary healthcare workers who obtain work through their platforms.

Stats this year:

Since my last post, there were many new bills, bringing this year’s total to 87 noncompete bills in 37 states.

So, if you’re counting, that’s a total of nine new noncompete laws this year in eight states, and one more possibly coming in the next two weeks.

The states with new laws are Arkansas, Colorado, Indiana, Montana, Oregon, Utah, Wyoming, and Virginia. That is separate from the wage updates and important state court developments, such as in Washington. 

Here is a breakdown of all of the 87 bills that have been pending this year:

• 16 proposed a total ban
• 18 involved wage thresholds or similar criteria
• 9 included notice provisions
• 38 were in the healthcare industry
• 7 involved some type of fine or penalty

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Firm resources: 

We know how hard it is to keep up with the ever-changing laws and requirements around the country for how you can protect your trade secrets, customer goodwill, and the integrity of your workforce. To help, we have created the resources below (available for free). Each chart is regularly updated to reflect the latest developments. 

	50-State Noncompete Law Chart, the first of its kind and regularly updated (downloadable PDF) (to be updated for the new exemptions in Illinois and Pennsylvania)50-State and Federal Trade Secret Law Chart, providing a comparison of the trade secrets laws nationally to the Uniform Trade Secrets Act (downloadable PDF)
	Chart of Noncompete “Low-Wage” Thresholds and Criteria (downloadable)
	Notice requirements summary chart, providing details for each of the 8 states (plus D.C.) that has notice requirements related to noncompetes (downloadable PDF)
	“Changing Trade Secrets | Noncompete Laws” (dedicated blog page) now provides a current detailed summary of the changing landscape of trade secret laws and noncompete laws around the country, state by state and at the federal level
	Trade secret and other legitimate business interest protection plan strategy and checklist

We hope you find all of these resources useful. More will be coming.

And please note, we are grateful for all of the input we’ve received over the years. We welcome any suggestions for improvements that you may be willing to share.

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A huge thank you to Erika Hahn for all of her extraordinary help in tracking and monitoring all of the recent noncompete and trade secret legislative and caselaw developments.