Workers

Axios - It was a huge week for U.S. workers, who notched some big wins that could lead to higher wages for millions.... The Labor Department this week expanded its rule on when employees are owed overtime.

• Also this week, the Federal Trade Commission took the radical step of releasing a rule that bans nearly all noncompete agreements.
• The FTC estimates that 30 million Americans are subject to these agreements and that its ban will lead to $524 in increased wages per year, per worker, on average.

Outside of Washington, auto workers in the South scored a breakthrough victory last week when employees at a Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga voted overwhelmingly in favor of unionizing. The vote gives unions a major inroad into organizing the South, historically hostile to organizing.

Another worker win: Late last night, Daimler truck workers in North Carolina reached a deal that gives them 25% raises and avoids a strike that would have started today, The New York Times reports.