The Federal Trade Commission and the Justice Department\u2019s Antitrust Division recently issued guidance for companies with respect to wage fixing and no poaching agreements. According to the federal government, workers are entitled to the benefits of a competitive market for their services.\u00a0 Workers are harmed if companies that would ordinarily compete against each other to recruit and retain employees agree to fix wages or other terms of employment or enter into \u201cno poaching agreements\u201d by agreeing not to recruit each other\u2019s employees.<\/p>\n
According to the Department of Justice, it intends to criminally investigate no poaching or wage fixing agreements that are unrelated or unnecessary to a larger, legitimate collaboration between the employers.\u00a0 According to the government, these types of agreements eliminate competition in the same way as agreements to fix the prices of goods or allocate customers which have traditionally been criminally investigated and prosecuted as antitrust violations.\u00a0 Agreements that do not constitute criminal violations could still lead to civil liability.<\/p>\n