Led by the late Steve Jobs, several Silicon Valley high-tech firms, including Apple and Google, conspired to prevent their employees from jumping to another company for higher wages. Employees filed a class action lawsuit in 2011, and yesterday were rewarded with a $415 million settlement, about $5,800 per worker.

That’s far less than the $3 billion (which could’ve tripled under antitrust law) the now-settled lawsuit sought. Had the employees won that amount, all 64,000 of them would’ve tallied about $100,000 each.

Lawyers representing the employees will take home $41 million.


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