Is it legal for a company to enter an agreement not to hire employees from another company?
<p>Is it legal for ACME Corp to enter a reciprocal agreement with another company to not hire from their workforce. This seems like it may have ramifications for price fixing the labor market.</p>

<p>Among other stories via Google, some major companies lost a 2015 civil lawsuit brought by their employees: <a href="https://www.cnet.com/news/apple-google-others-settle-anti-poaching-lawsuit-for-415-million/" rel="noreferrer">Apple, Google, others settle antipoaching lawsuit for $415 million - CNET</a></p>

<blockquote>
  <p>Filed by former employees of the companies involved, the lawsuit shed
  a light on the practice of some major tech industry players of
  allegedly working together to agree not to poach employees from each
  other. The affected employees had argued that such agreements limited
  their ability to rise up in the industry and stifled their attempts to
  earn higher salaries.</p>
</blockquote>

<p>And the US DOJ prosecutes, too: <a href="https://www.justice.gov/atr/division-operations/division-update-spring-2018/antitrust-division-continues-investigate-and-prosecute-no-poach-and-wage-fixing-agreements" rel="noreferrer">No More No-Poach: The Antitrust Division Continues to Investigate and Prosecute “No-Poach” and Wage-Fixing Agreements:</a></p>

<blockquote>
  <p>The Antitrust Division protects labor markets and employees by
  actively pursuing investigations into so-called “no-poach” and
  wage-fixing agreements between employers. When companies agree not to
  hire or recruit one another’s employees, they are agreeing not to
  compete for those employees’ labor. The same rules apply when
  employers compete for talent in labor markets as when they compete to
  sell goods and services.</p>
</blockquote>

texas labor-law