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ARTICLE · 30 SEPTEMBER 2022

Poultry Processors Settle With Department Of Justice Over Wage Information Exchanges

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The eyepopping $85 million settlement captured headlines, but this case is more than a cautionary tale about unlawful wage fixing.

United StatesPrivacy
Morgan Forsey
Morgan Forsey
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This summer the US Department of Justice settled with three poultry processors, Cargill Meat Solutions Corp., Sanderson Farms, Inc., and Wayne Farms, LLC. (U.S. v. Cargill Meat Solutions Corp. et al, 1:22-cv-01821 (D. Md. 2022)). The antitrust case focused on "long-running conspiracy to exchange information about wages and benefits for poultry processing plant workers and collaborate with their competitors on compensation decisions."

The eyepopping $85 million settlement captured headlines, but this case is more than a cautionary tale about unlawful wage fixing.

Cargill serves as a reminder and a warning for all employers about how to use compensation research or other analyses of employee data. In this case, the processors allegedly shared confidential employee wage and benefit information to make industry-wide decisions about compensation for their workers. They also, according to the DOJ, engaged consulting firms to collect and circulate disaggregated

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