Talent should have its rewards

THE Obama administration is taking a tougher line on antitrust issues, a welcome change after a long period of permissiveness. This tough line includes an unusual investigation into possible collusion in the market for top-end talent.

The Justice Department has demanded documents of Google, Yahoo, Apple, Genentech and other tech companies. The accusation is that some employers have been agreeing among themselves not to raid each other for talent, or for specific persons. If the Justice Department can establish that such agreement exists, either explicit or tacit, it would be just as illegal as a secret agreement to fix prices.

All Americans should want our tech companies to be successful, because much of our prosperity flows from what they do. These companies are in the brainpower market, and in the matter of high-end labor they hire from a global pool.

They bring in foreign talent through H-1B visas, which most American employers do not. This places some American workers into international competition, but they tend to be at the very high end of the scale of ability and pay, and do not need to be protected from competition.

Their employers should be bound by the same rules of competition. Companies assert the necessity to pay big money to CEOs and executive vice presidents. At the same time, they cannot conspire to short software engineers.