The end of non-competes: a win for talent, a wake-up call for employers.

The government plans to ban non-compete clauses for Australian employees earning under the Fair Work high income threshold, $190,100 from 1 July 2026, and wants the ban in force in 2027. Draft laws were released on 7 September 2026, and as at October 2026 they have not passed Parliament. For employed brokers, it means real mobility and, for many, genuine negotiating power for the first time. For business owners, it means retention has to be earned rather than enforced, and it starts with who keeps the trail and who wears the clawback. It is one of the boldest labour reforms in recent memory, and it will change how our industry hires, retains and competes for talent.

The bottom line: When the non-compete ban lands, which the government wants in 2027, contracts will stop holding people in place, and culture, pay and opportunity will have to. FinTalent helps brokerages get ahead of that now, because the employers who win talent in a frictionless market are the ones building reasons to stay, not barriers to leaving.

The ban was announced in the March 2025 Budget. Under the exposure draft it would start on the first 1 January, 1 April, 1 July or 1 October after the bill receives Royal Assent, and a contract signed before then is only caught if it is varied afterwards. It is one of the boldest labour reforms in recent memory, and it is going to change the way our industry hires, retains and competes for talent. For brokers, it is liberation. For business owners, it is time to get serious.

What does the non-compete ban mean for brokers?

Non-compete clauses were once the domain of executives. Today they are used far more broadly, often on mid-level employees who pose no real strategic threat but are locked out of new opportunities anyway. Treasury cites an e61 survey finding one in five Australian workers has a non-compete clause, including lower-wage workers in childcare, labouring and clerical roles. Removing them unlocks job mobility, so brokers can move where they are valued without fear of legal reprisal. It should lift wages, because competitive tension increases pay, and e61’s modelling, quoted by the government, puts the gain for affected workers at up to four per cent, about $2,500 a year. It also fuels innovation, because when people move freely, ideas and best practices move with them.

In short, it will make our sector more dynamic. For many skilled brokers, it will be the first time in their careers they have had real negotiating power. The draft covers employees, so brokers engaged as contractors sit outside it and the restraints in their agreements are untouched. If you are working out where you sit against the $190,100 line, the draft measures earnings the Fair Work way, which leaves out commission, so for most employed brokers it is the base that counts. Our salary guide has the benchmarks by role and city.

How do you protect your turf without non-competes?

There is a reason employers lean on non-competes. They are scared of losing IP, scared of losing clients, and scared of losing staff they have spent years developing. Those concerns are not paranoid, they are commercial realities. Without non-competes, businesses face real risks. IP can leak when brokers walk out with pricing models, scripts or lead-gen strategies. Clients can defect, because relationships do not belong to the brand, they belong to people. Training churn bites too, when junior brokers get poached just as they become productive. The question becomes what you can rely on once restrictive contracts are off the table.

What should smart employers do instead?

The best operators will not panic. They will adapt. That means investing in loyalty rather than lockdowns, because culture, clarity and career paths beat legal threats every time. It means tightening confidentiality clauses and client non-solicits, which the draft still allows where they are necessary and reasonable. Staff non-solicits, the clause that stops a departing broker taking your team, would be banned for every employee, whatever they earn. It also means knowing who you are hiring in the first place, because if someone leaves you with no warning, that is often a hiring mistake made upstream. In the post-non-compete world, trust and retention will not be optional. They will be everything, and they will be won the same way you win any candidate, by treating hiring as a sales process. If you want to get the hire right at the front end, our hiring advice covers how we approach it.

Final word

This ban will not just make it easier for brokers to leave. It will make it easier for great employers to stand out. When movement is frictionless, people stay for reasons that matter: growth, respect and opportunity. If you are not offering that, a contract was never going to save you anyway.