Moonlighting is legal in all 50 US states, and no state law forbids an adult from holding a second job. What differs from state to state is how much your employer may do about it: in most states an at-will employer can fire you for breaking its outside-work policy, while a few states protect some lawful activity outside work hours.
Those protective laws are narrower than they sound. Each has an exception for work that conflicts with the employer’s business, and at least one doesn’t reach paid work at all. The sections below cover the states people search for most, quote the statutes where the wording matters, and say what each one means for a side job. This is general information, not legal advice; for a decision about your own job, an employment lawyer in your state can read your contract against the law.
All 50 states allow a second job, and at-will employment is the default
In all states except Montana, employment is at will by default, which means an employer can end the job for any reason that isn’t illegal. Breaking a written moonlighting policy is a legal reason. That is why the employer’s policy, not the state, decides most cases, as can you get fired for moonlighting? explains.
State law changes the picture in three ways: laws that protect lawful off-duty activity, limits on non-compete agreements, and limits on invention clauses. Many states also protect off-duty use of lawful products such as tobacco, but those laws don’t cover side jobs.
California protects lawful off-duty conduct, with conflict exceptions
California gives employees more room than any other state. California Labor Code section 96(k) lets the Labor Commissioner take claims for lost wages from employees disciplined or fired for lawful conduct during nonworking hours away from the employer’s premises, and section 98.6 bars retaliation for that conduct.
California courts have read these sections narrowly. In Barbee v. Household Automotive Finance (2003), the Court of Appeal held that section 96(k) doesn’t create new rights on its own, so an employer can still act on off-duty conduct that conflicts with its business. Side work for a competitor or a client, or side work done on company time, stays outside the protection.
Two more California laws matter for side work:
- Business and Professions Code section 16600 voids most non-compete agreements, so a California employer can’t stop you from working in your field after you leave.
- Labor Code section 2870 limits invention clauses. An employer can’t claim an invention you made entirely on your own time, without its equipment or trade secrets, unless it relates to the employer’s business or results from work you did for it.
In California, unrelated side work on your own time and equipment is the safest it gets anywhere in the US, though a policy asking you to disclose it still applies.
New York protects leisure and politics, and paid work only barely
New York Labor Law section 201-d protects political activities, legal recreational activities and the legal use of consumable products, when they happen outside work hours, off the employer’s premises and without its equipment.
A paid side job gets little protection from section 201-d, because of how the statute defines recreation. It defines recreational activities as “any lawful, leisure-time activity, for which the employee receives no compensation and which is generally engaged in for recreational purposes.” A paid side job is compensated work, so it falls outside that protection. Section 201-d also lets an employer act when an activity creates a material conflict of interest with its business.
In practice, a New York employer can enforce a policy that requires approval of outside paid work. Volunteering, hobbies and unpaid creative projects get more protection than paid moonlighting.
Colorado protects any lawful off-duty activity, with three exceptions
Colorado Revised Statutes section 24-34-402.5 makes it unlawful to fire an employee for any lawful activity off the employer’s premises during nonworking hours. Unlike New York’s law, it isn’t limited to unpaid activity, so it can reach a side job.
The statute lets the employer act anyway when the restriction relates to a bona fide occupational requirement, is reasonably and rationally related to the employee’s job responsibilities, or is needed to avoid a conflict of interest or the appearance of one. Colorado courts read “conflict of interest” in its ordinary sense, which covers more than financial conflicts. Side work in your employer’s field, or for its clients, is the kind of work the exceptions cover.
Colorado also restricts non-compete agreements to highly paid workers and requires written notice of them, under a law that took effect in August 2022.
North Dakota protects off-duty activity unless it conflicts with the business
North Dakota’s human rights law, North Dakota Century Code chapter 14-02.4, lists participation in lawful activity off the employer’s premises during nonworking hours among the grounds an employer can’t use to fire or refuse to hire someone. The protection ends where the activity is in direct conflict with the employer’s essential business-related interests.
Like Colorado’s law, it isn’t limited to unpaid activity. Side work in a different field, on your own time, sits squarely inside it. North Dakota also voids most non-compete agreements, as California does.
Texas, Florida and most other states leave it to the employer
Texas has no general law protecting lawful off-duty activity, so a private Texas employer can enforce a policy that bans or limits outside work, and can fire an at-will employee who breaks it. Florida and most other states work the same way.
In these states, the advice is the same as anywhere without special protection: read your policy, disclose what it asks you to disclose, and get approval in writing. How to ask permission to moonlight has a sample note.
Montana is the one state where firing needs good cause
Montana’s Wrongful Discharge from Employment Act requires good cause to fire an employee who has finished the probation period. Good cause includes a legitimate business reason, and breaking a reasonable written policy usually counts as one, so a Montana employer with a clear moonlighting policy can still enforce it. What changes is that the employer needs a reason, and an approved side job on your own time is hard to turn into one.
Some jobs have moonlighting rules no state law overrides
Federal employees follow the executive branch ethics rules, and many agencies require prior written approval for outside employment. Active-duty service members need their command’s approval. Medical residents follow their program’s moonlighting policy and the ACGME’s duty-hour limits. Registered brokers must notify their firm in writing before outside business activity under FINRA Rule 3270. These rules apply in all states, including the protective ones.
Remote side work that is unrelated to your job, such as writing projects, language work or a few hours on evenings, clears most of these rules once it is disclosed. For the basics on taxes and keeping the two jobs apart, see what is moonlighting?
