A non-solicitation agreement is enforceable in Washington if it is reasonable in duration, geography, and scope, and if it stays narrowly focused on preventing you from actively pursuing your former employer’s clients or coworkers. Push the language further — so it effectively blocks you from doing business with those clients at all — and Washington law reclassifies it as a noncompetition covenant, which brings a strict set of statutory requirements the agreement must meet or be void.
What Solicitation Actually Means
Non-solicitation clauses in Washington usually come in two flavors. A customer non-solicitation restricts you from contacting your former employer’s clients to move their business. An employee non-solicitation restricts you from recruiting former colleagues to leave. Many agreements include both.
“Solicit” means actively pursuing someone. If a former client finds you through a web search or a general advertisement and reaches out on their own, that passive contact is not the same as you emailing their account list to pitch your new services. Courts look closely at who initiated contact when deciding whether a breach happened.
The Standard Washington Courts Apply
RCW 49.62 defines “noncompetition covenant” broadly, but it explicitly excludes non-solicitation agreements from that definition, along with confidentiality agreements and trade secret protections.1Washington State Legislature. Washington Code Chapter 49.62 – Noncompetition Covenants That exclusion is why the headline features of Washington’s noncompete law — the six-figure income thresholds, the mandatory disclosure timing, the $5,000 statutory penalty — do not automatically apply to a standard non-solicitation clause.
Instead, a pure non-solicitation is evaluated under Washington common law using a reasonableness test. Courts look at three things: how long the restriction lasts, how large a geographic area it covers, and how many activities it prohibits. If the clause fails on any of these, a court can strike it or narrow it.
The agreement also has to protect a legitimate business interest. Established client relationships and investments in employee training are the standard examples. A clause blocking you from soliciting clients you never worked with is harder for an employer to defend, because there is no relationship to protect. Washington’s legislature has declared that workforce mobility matters to economic growth, and that provisions supporting mobility should be read broadly while restrictions should be read narrowly.1Washington State Legislature. Washington Code Chapter 49.62 – Noncompetition Covenants Close calls tend to go against the employer.
When a Non-Solicitation Clause Becomes a Noncompete
Here is the trap. RCW 49.62 says any agreement “directly or indirectly prohibiting the acceptance or transaction of business with a customer” is a noncompetition covenant.1Washington State Legislature. Washington Code Chapter 49.62 – Noncompetition Covenants A clause labeled “non-solicitation” that in practice stops you from doing business with a former client — even when the client comes to you unprompted — has crossed the line. At that point, the full weight of RCW 49.62 applies, and the agreement must satisfy every statutory requirement or be void.
Minimum Income Thresholds
A reclassified agreement is unenforceable unless your annualized earnings from the employer exceeded a statutory threshold. For 2026, the thresholds are $126,858.83 for employees and $317,147.09 for independent contractors.2Washington State Department of Labor & Industries. Higher Wages, New Tower Crane Rules in Store for 2026 The figures adjust annually. If you earned less than the applicable threshold, the agreement cannot be enforced against you.3Washington State Legislature. Washington Code 49.62.020 – When Void and Unenforceable
Timing and Consideration
The employer must give you the full written terms before or at the time you accept the job offer. Waiting until your first day, or slipping the clause into an employee handbook after you have started, fails this requirement. If the employer presents the agreement mid-employment, continued employment alone is not enough. The employer must provide independent consideration — a raise, a signing bonus, specialized training — or the agreement is void.3Washington State Legislature. Washington Code 49.62.020 – When Void and Unenforceable
Duration
Any restriction longer than 18 months is presumed unreasonable. An employer can overcome that presumption only with clear and convincing evidence that a longer period is necessary to protect its business or goodwill.4Washington State Legislature. Washington Code 49.62.050 – Unenforceable Provisions Most enforceable Washington agreements run between 12 and 18 months.
If You Were Laid Off
A reclassified non-solicitation is void if you were terminated in a layoff, unless the employer pays you compensation equal to your base salary for the entire enforcement period, minus what you earn from a new job during that time.3Washington State Legislature. Washington Code 49.62.020 – When Void and Unenforceable An employer cannot lay you off and then rely on the restriction to keep you out of the market for free.
What Enforcement Looks Like
If the agreement is valid and you breach it, the employer has two main remedies. The first is an injunction ordering you to stop the solicitation. Employers often move quickly for emergency relief because each day of solicitation can cost them clients, and courts grant injunctions when the employer shows harm that money alone will not fix.
The second is monetary damages, usually measured by lost profits from solicited clients or the cost of replacing recruited employees. These cases often turn on causation: whether the employer can prove the client left because of your solicitation, rather than for reasons of their own.
The Penalty That Cuts the Other Way
If a court finds a noncompetition covenant violates RCW 49.62, the employer must pay the employee the greater of actual damages or $5,000, plus reasonable attorney’s fees and costs. The same penalty applies even if the court merely reforms or rewrites the agreement to make it enforceable.5Washington State Legislature. Washington Code 49.62.080 – Violation of This Chapter, Relief, Remedies Washington courts will edit an overbroad restrictive covenant rather than throw it out entirely, but the employer pays for that editing. For a non-solicitation clause that gets reclassified as a noncompete, this penalty is real leverage.
Business Sales Are Treated Differently
RCW 49.62 does not apply to restrictive covenants tied to the sale of a business, as long as the signer is buying, selling, or disposing of an ownership interest of at least one percent.1Washington State Legislature. Washington Code Chapter 49.62 – Noncompetition Covenants If you sold your company and signed a non-solicitation as part of the deal, the income thresholds, timing rules, and statutory penalties above do not apply. Common law and the contract itself govern.
Federal Status
The Federal Trade Commission’s 2024 attempt to ban noncompete agreements nationwide has been rescinded and removed from the Code of Federal Regulations. The FTC has shifted to case-by-case enforcement under Section 5 of the FTC Act, retaining authority to challenge specific agreements it considers unfair, particularly those affecting lower-wage workers or exceptionally broad clauses. Washington state law is the primary framework for non-solicitation agreements covering workers in the state.