If you were just fired in DC and the offer letter you signed years ago has a non-compete clause hanging over your head, the news is probably better than you think. DC has one of the strictest non-compete laws in the country, and most agreements with workers below the District’s “highly compensated” threshold are simply unenforceable. A wrongful termination attorney DC workers consult after a separation usually evaluates the non-compete first, because what looks like a binding restriction often turns out to be a paper tiger that should not be slowing down your job search or shrinking your severance demand.

What the law actually says in 2026

DC’s framework comes from the Ban on Non-Compete Agreements Amendment Act of 2020, scaled back by the Non-Compete Clarification Amendment Act of 2022 (DC Law 24-175), which took effect October 1, 2022. The current rule is straightforward:

• Non-compete provisions with most DC employees are void and unenforceable.
• Non-competes are only permitted with “highly compensated employees” who meet the salary threshold.
• Broadcast employees can never be bound by non-competes, regardless of income.
• Even highly compensated employees are only covered when the employer follows specific notice and content requirements.

The salary threshold is adjusted annually for the Consumer Price Index for the Washington metropolitan area. The 2026 figures:

• General highly compensated employees: $162,164 in total annual compensation
• Medical specialists (licensed physicians who have completed residency): $270,274

“Total compensation” includes base pay, overtime, bonuses, commissions, and vested stock. It does not include non-cash fringe benefits like health insurance. If total compensation in the 12 months before the proposed non-compete period was below the threshold, the non-compete is void. Full stop.

What an employer had to do to make the agreement valid

Even when an employee earns above the threshold, the non-compete only holds up if the employer hit several procedural marks:

• Provided the agreement in writing at least 14 days before the employee started, or 14 days before signing if the employee was already on staff
• Included specific verbatim notice language referencing the Ban on Non-Compete Agreements Amendment Act and the Department of Employment Services
• Limited the non-competition period to no more than 365 days after separation (730 days for medical specialists)
• Specified the functional scope (services, roles, industries, or competitors) and a geographic limitation

Skip any of these, and the agreement loses enforceability. Most non-competes drafted before 2022 fail at least one requirement.

Non-competes are not the same as workplace policies

DC employers can still enforce some restrictions that are not non-competes:

• Confidentiality and NDA provisions, including trade secret protections
• Non-solicit clauses if reasonable in scope and duration
• Anti-moonlighting and conflict-of-interest policies that apply during employment, not after

The line between a non-compete and a “policy” matters because employers and their counsel sometimes blur it. A restriction that bars an employee from working for any competitor for 12 months after separation is a non-compete, no matter what the employer calls it. A restriction that prohibits running a side business in the same industry while still employed is a workplace policy and may be valid.

How an unenforceable non-compete reshapes severance talks (and what a Wrongful Termination Attorney DC client should know)

This is where the practical money is. Many DC severance offers are structured around the assumption that the former employee feels constrained by the non-compete. Releases often include language like “in exchange for the company releasing you from the non-competition provision in your employment agreement…” If the non-compete was never enforceable, the company is offering you something it never had.

Counsel typically takes the following approach:

• Confirm the agreement is unenforceable under the 2022 law by checking salary, notice, scope, and duration
• Make that determination part of the response to the severance proposal, in writing where appropriate
• Reallocate the value the employer was assigning to the non-compete release into actual consideration, such as a larger cash severance, extended benefits, a neutral reference, or a fuller wrongful termination release on the worker’s side
• Push back on any new restrictive covenant the employer tries to slip into the severance agreement, since the 14-day notice requirement still applies and severance papers are not initial-employment papers

Catching the unenforceable clause early can shift a typical white-collar negotiation by tens of thousands of dollars.

Federal contractors and out-of-state employer workarounds

Federal contractor status alone does not exempt an employer from DC’s non-compete rules. The contract may require specific confidentiality, security, or conflicts-of-interest controls, but DC’s framework still applies to DC employees of federal contractors who do not meet the threshold or the procedural requirements.

Choice-of-law clauses are a more common workaround. An employer headquartered in Virginia or Maryland may try to import its home state’s non-compete law through a clause buried in the agreement. DC courts will not enforce a choice-of-law clause that would deprive a DC employee of fundamental statutory protections, and the non-compete framework has been treated as one of those protections.

Bottom line

If you were fired in DC in 2026 and a non-compete is shaping your job search or your severance posture, you may be operating under restrictions the law no longer recognizes. A consultation with a wrongful termination attorney DC employees rely on can confirm enforceability, recover value the employer was assuming you would forfeit, and block new restrictive covenants from creeping into a release. The DC Department of Employment Services publishes the current thresholds and the official notice template at does.dc.gov. Internal pages worth pairing with this post include a DC severance review guide, a confidentiality and trade secret overview, and the firm’s DC wrongful termination page. Do not sign anything until counsel has read the existing agreement and the proposed release side by side.