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On January 16th, 2025, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) issued antitrust guidelines for business activities affecting workers. Markedly, these guidelines were jointly issued with the Department of Justice’s (DOJ’s) Antitrust Division. In general, the guidelines explain how both the FTC and DOJ assess whether business practices affecting workers violate antitrust laws. Notably, these guidelines replace the 2016 Antitrust Guidance for Human Resource Professionals. Earlier, in August 2024, a U.S. District Court struck down the FTC’s noncompete agreements ban. This ban would have affected employers nationwide.
Background of the Antitrust Guidelines
In summary, according to the FTC and the DOJ, competition among employers helps workers through:
- better wages,
- benefits, and
- other terms and conditions for working people.
Similarly, “vibrant, open markets” for recruiting and retaining workers can lead to new business formation, innovation, and productivity. As the guidelines state, business practices may violate the antitrust laws when they harm competition among employers, which can lead to worse outcomes for workers and the broader economy.
According to FTC Chair Lina M. Khan, “The antitrust laws protect all Americans, including workers, from illegal monopolization, collusion, and unfair methods of competition. These antitrust guidelines provide clarity to businesses about the practices that can violate the law—from agreements between firms to fix workers’ wages to coercive noncompetes.”
Overview of the 2025 Antitrust Guidelines
Specifically, the guidelines outline specific types of agreements or business practices that may violate the antitrust laws. These practices include using noncompetes or sharing information about wages among companies that compete for workers. The guidelines also outline agreements and other activities that may lead to criminal liability. Examples of these types include agreements to fix wages or not to poach employees. Additionally, the guidelines explain that false claims about workers’ potential earnings may violate federal law.
Finally, the guidelines also provide information about how to report potential antitrust violations to the FTC and the DOJ.
Employer Takeaways
In conclusion, the FTC and the DOJ are concerned with employers violating current antitrust laws. Therefore, employers must ensure compliance with these laws and regulations that require specific posting requirements. Such posting requirements cover the inclusion of specific labor law information. WorkWise Compliance pioneered the Space Saver-1 (SS1) All-On-One State and Federal Labor Law Poster in 1989 to help employers achieve that goal. The state-specific SS1 posters are attorney-reviewed and updated regularly by the compliance research team. Furthermore, each SS1 poster comes with a “We Pay the Fine” Guarantee of up to $40,000.
