Its only reasonable if its limited duration and does not stop you plying your trade and she is paid for it

The problem is that our legal system almost certainly won't reach that decision quickly and at low cost. Even if she wins, she loses.

That, and people aren't typically paid for the time covered by non-competes.

How easy or not it is to be fired varies by state. Right to Work states are the easiest to be dismissed in (fired or laid off, not all dismissals are firings). More union friendly states (NY, CA, WA), it's harder to be dismissed.

In almost all states, government jobs are hard to be dismissed from after your initial probationary period (typically 1-3 years). Though sometimes getting to an extreme in cities like NYC where it can be so hard to dismiss a teacher, they just box them up in a teacher version of in-school suspension.

> How easy or not it is to be fired varies by state. Right to Work states are the easiest to be dismissed in (fired or laid off, not all dismissals are firings). More union friendly states (NY, CA, WA), it's harder to be dismissed.

All US states have at-will employment, which means that if you don't have a union contract, you can be fired for any reason or no reason.

All of them. "Right to work" is a completely different policy question.

Nobody except for union workers and some executives in the United States has what other First World countries consider a binding employment contract. All employment in the USA is by the mercy of the employer.

Depressingly, though, states with easy firings are also the states that make noncompete enforcement easy.

you can still be fired easily for cause or via redundancy one would assume

"Easily" is relative. If you work in a union friendly state and are in a union, cause usually has to be documented and there is often an appeals process. You may also be required to provide an opportunity for the employee to correct their behavior (which they have to document). If they fail to do that, you can dismiss them, if they succeed, you have to start over again when they start screwing up again in a year or two. Pros and cons. I'd rather have the protections of a union than not, but it also allows people to abuse it.

In a Right to Work state, you can generally be dismissed very quickly for very little cause, with little recourse.

from direct experience in the UK which have the protections you mention its still relatively easy to fire for cause gross misconduct even more so.