Allowed within statutory limits

Non-compete law in Nevada

Under NRS 613.195 a noncompetition covenant is void unless it is supported by valuable consideration, imposes no greater restraint than needed to protect the employer, imposes no undue hardship on the employee and is proportionate to the consideration. It cannot apply to an employee paid solely on an hourly wage basis (tips excluded), cannot bar a former employee from serving a former customer who left voluntarily and was not solicited, and after a layoff or restructuring is enforceable only while the employer keeps paying salary, benefits or equivalent. A court must revise (not strike) an unreasonable covenant it finds supported by consideration, and must award the employee attorney fees in the hourly-employee and unsolicited-customer cases.

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Employee non-competes
Only within the statute's conditions
Pay floor
None in the statute
Duration
No statutory cap; time, area and scope must be reasonable (court must revise to reasonable limits) (NRS 613.195(1)(b), (6)).
Consideration
Must be supported by valuable consideration, and the restrictions must be appropriate in relation to that consideration (NRS 613.195(1)(a), (d)).
Pay during the restriction
If the employment ends through a reduction in force, reorganization or similar restructuring, the covenant is enforceable only during the period the employer pays salary, benefits or equivalent compensation, including severance (NRS 613.195(5)).

Exceptions and special rules

  • NRS 613.195 applies to agreements 'between an employer and employee'; the statute has no express sale-of-business carve-out and does not address sale-of-business covenants.
  • Agreements not to disclose trade secrets, business methods, customer lists, secret formulas or confidential information are allowed if supported by valuable consideration and reasonable in scope and duration (NRS 613.200(4)).
  • Employees paid solely on an hourly wage basis, exclusive of tips or gratuities, cannot be bound by a noncompetition covenant (NRS 613.195(3)).

Non-solicitation clauses

Not separately regulated. 'Noncompetition covenant' is defined as an agreement that, on termination, prohibits the employee from pursuing a similar vocation in competition with or becoming employed by a competitor (NRS 613.195(8)(b)). Subsection 2 bars a covenant (and an employer action) from restricting a former employee from serving a former customer or client who was not solicited by the employee and voluntarily left and sought the employee's services, if the employee otherwise complies with the covenant's limits.

Contracts naming another state's law

None in NRS 613.195 or 613.200.

Remedies

Court must revise an unreasonable covenant and enforce it as revised (NRS 613.195(6)); court must award reasonable attorney fees and costs to the employee if it finds the covenant applies to an hourly employee or the employer restricted service to an unsolicited former customer (NRS 613.195(7)); NRS 18.010 fees otherwise preserved. Separately, NRS 613.200(1)-(3) makes willfully preventing a former employee from obtaining employment elsewhere in Nevada a gross misdemeanor (fine up to $5,000) with a Labor Commissioner administrative penalty up to $5,000 per violation, but negotiating, executing or attempting to enforce a covenant that is void under NRS 613.195 does not violate NRS 613.200 (NRS 613.195(4)).

Which agreements it covers

Subsections on hourly workers, unsolicited customers and fees were added by AB 47 (Stats. 2021, ch. 314). The enrolled bill text read states no separate applicability clause for that section; an October 1, 2021 effective date appears only in secondary sources and was not confirmed. Not confirmed from the session law; see applicability.

Recent changes

  • 2026-04-15. Official NRS chapter 613 compilation (Rev. 4/15/2026, current through the 2025 session) shows NRS 613.195 last amended 2021 and NRS 613.200 last amended 2017; no 2023 or 2025 amendment. Nevada has no regular legislative session in 2026 (next: February 2027). Source
  • 2021. AB 47 (Stats. 2021, ch. 314) amended NRS 613.195: hourly-employee exclusion (subsec. 3), unsolicited-customer protection (subsec. 2), mandatory attorney fees (subsec. 7). Source

Primary sources

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