"....you can argue it's not actually work, as your labor does not produce anything of value"
I think if we follow that slippery slope, employers might as well not pay salaries if they felt you weren't terribly productive during a given pay period.
"you can just ignore it the same way most people ignore their noncompete clauses"
Again, I'd hate to find out that an employer has this attitude toward honoring contracts as you suggest workers do.
That is very clearly wage theft. Employee rights is not so clear cut, and when you really get down to it must be decided in favor of the employee. (Otherwise, e.g., an out of work engineer who can't take jobs due to a noncompete is put on unemployment, having the public socialize his previous employer's contract terms.)
I think if we follow that slippery slope, employers might as well not pay salaries if they felt you weren't terribly productive during a given pay period.
"you can just ignore it the same way most people ignore their noncompete clauses"
Again, I'd hate to find out that an employer has this attitude toward honoring contracts as you suggest workers do.