FTC Act §5: Unfair competition: Antitrust: Price fixing
(wages or fees paid to workers): Labor law (wages): Human resource:
Illegal for competitors to agree to fix
wages or fees paid to workers in order to drive wages down.
FTC
Bureau of Competition
July 31, 2018
Republication
FTC File No. 171-0134
“Just as it is illegal for competitors to agree
to fix prices on the products they sell in order to drive prices up, it is
illegal for competitors to agree to fix wages or fees paid to workers in order
to drive wages down,” said Bruce Hoffman, Director of the Bureau of
Competition. “All workers are entitled to competitive wages and the FTC will
enforce the antitrust laws against any companies that agree not to compete for
workers, or to attempt to drive down workers’ wages. Fortunately, in
cooperation with the Texas Attorney General’s office, we were successful in
stopping this conduct quite quickly. We will aggressively investigate any other
instances in which companies engage in this type of behavior, and we will seek
relief commensurate with the conduct, the harm to workers, and—where
appropriate—any ill-gotten benefits received by the firms engaged in the
illegal activities.”
According to the complaint, the two owners
agreed to lower their therapist pay rates to the same level and also invited
several of their competitors to lower their rates in an attempt to keep
therapists from switching to staffing companies that paid more. The complaint
alleges that they entered into the agreement after learning that a home health
agency planned to pay significantly lower rates to the therapist staffing
companies for therapist services.
The complaint charges Your Therapy Source and
the two owners with violating Section 5 of the Federal Trade Commission Act by
unreasonably restraining competition to offer competitive pay rates to
therapists; fixing or decreasing pay rates for therapists; and depriving
therapists of the benefits of competition among therapist staffing companies.
In October 2016, the FTC and the Department of
Justice issued Guidance for Human Resource Professionals for tips on how to
avoid antitrust risks associated with agreements among competing employers to
fix wages. That guidance, which is
available on the FTC website, outlines steps
businesses can take to comply with the antitrust laws in recruiting and
retaining employees.
The FTC will publish the consent agreement
package in the Federal Register shortly. The agreement will be subject to
public comment for 30 days, beginning today and continuing through Aug. 30,
2018, after which the Commission will decide whether to make the proposed
consent order final. Comments can be
filed electronically or in paper form by following
the instructions in the “Supplementary Information” section of the Federal
Register notice.
ANALYSIS OF AGREEMENT
CONTAINING
CONSENT ORDER TO AID
PUBLIC COMMENT
In the
Matter of Your Therapy Source, LLC; Neeraj Jindal; and Sheri Yarbray
FTC File No. 171-0134
FTC and DOJ Release Guidance for Human
Resource Professionals on How Antitrust Law Applies to Employee Hiring and
Compensation:
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