Class-action suit accuses major tech firms of pay collusion

5/19/2011 6:16 PM EDT

Brad, if true, this is really unfortunate. It's hard for me to imagine huge companies like these even caring just as it's easy for me to imagine how zealous government prosecutors can run amok.

Like the article writer, I believe we should compete, mix it up, do a little mud wrestling. That's what business is all about. But my eternal optimism does (I will admit) occasionally collide with a completely different reality.

And those are the times where I sit back and really think, "what the hell?"

5/21/2011 5:22 PM EDT

Companies have been putting clauses like this in contracts for at least a decade or so. Back when I started I remember hearing about surveys being done through business associations to "...make sure that salaries are competitive". Even anti-poaching clauses can be worked around by having the employee apply directly with no encouragement (wink, wink).

Larry M.

5/25/2011 12:33 PM EDT

It is a shame when these things happen, even more so now with the economy as hard as it is; I hope that everyone one involved steps back and considers the ramifications of these actions. What if those companies could not hire good and talented people BECAUSE the prospective employees were now wary of working for them? What would happen now if they lost their best people (because they believed that their pay had been restricted and wanted to earn what they could elsewhere)? I do wonder how prevalent this practice is in the engineering work place?

6/29/2011 11:27 PM EDT

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6/29/2011 11:35 PM EDT

I hope these companies get sued up the behind if they participated in this alleged scheme. This is very sad. I am not sure where is the "Free Market Economy" principles that are touted.

7/4/2011 6:55 PM EDT

I did once work at one of the competing tester companies that supplied testers and programmers to GM. The amazing thing was that the rate of pay was identical between all of these bitter rival organizations. Also, the cost of employee contributed medical insurance was exactly the same. Was that a coincidence or what? Willy C, TP, T-T, and the others:you really think that nobody figured it out? Note that the names are not changed to protect the innocent, none of them are innocent.