Antitrust Implications Of Wage And Benefit Surveys

The exchange of wage and benefit information between competitors is not necessarily an antitrust violation, but it can be. It some cases, it’s a thin line. In a Today’s General Counsel columnist Jeffery Cross sorts out this potentially problematic situation, with particular reference to a seminal document released by the DOJ and the Federal Trade Commission late last year. There is a wide range of possibilities involved here, from certain kinds of information exchange that the Supreme Court has said can actually be pro-competitive, to explicit agreements to fix compensation or to reach “anti-poaching” agreements, which in some cases can be criminal violations of antitrust laws, possibly even exposing HR executives to fines and imprisonment.