Lawsuit Claims Google, Apple, Lucasfilm & Others Fixed Employee Wages

A class action lawsuit has been filed against  Apple, Google, Adobe, Intel, Intuit, Lucasfilm and Pixar claiming that these companies conspired to fix and suppress the compensation of their employees in violation of California antitrust statutes. According to the lawsuit, there exists a conspiracy to eliminate competition between them for skilled labor, and the lack of competition for talent has resulted in artificial wages that were lower than market value. The suit also alleges that these practices unfairly affected job mobility because the conspiracy included agreements between the companies that they would not recruit employees from each other, that they would notify each other when making an offer to a another company’s employee (without the knowledge of that employee), and that no counteroffers would be made from either company once an offer was extended. These allegations follow a 2009 antitrust investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice, after which each company agreed not to enter into non-solicitation agreements as part of a settlement with the DOJ. The complaint seeks restitution for lost compensation and treble damages for the anti-competitive employment practices of the defendant companies.