Bad Cartoon: Studios Conspire Not to Hire Each Other’s Animators

Many of us are part of a defined labor market (e.g., teachers, lawyers, fast food workers, etc.). Imagine if the main employers in your labor marker conspired not to hire you in exchange for a promise that your employer would not hire away their employees. You’d be stuck, and your wages would not rise with competition. That’s what animators at major Hollywood studios are alleging in a federal lawsuit. Recently, Judge Koh ruled that their case can proceed to trail. She cited emails and other evidence showing that studios agreed not to solicit each other's workers, shared information about pay practices, offered "misleading, pretextual" reasons to justify why wages were not higher, and took steps to keep their conspiracy a secret. "These allegations raise a plausible inference that defendants entered into an express agreement to suppress compensation," Koh wrote in a 55-page decision.