Labor Market Competition

CRA supports law firms, corporate counsel, and regulators in matters involving labor market competition, applying labor economic and antitrust analysis to assess competitive effects in labor markets. Our experts advise on matters involving the Department of Justice (DOJ), Federal Trade Commission (FTC), state attorneys general, and courts, across merger review, investigations, and litigation in the United States and internationally.

We help clients evaluate labor market impacts when transactions or employment practices raise antitrust scrutiny, including allegations of reduced labor competition, wage suppression, monopsony power, wage fixing, or unlawful coordination. CRA supports clients from early regulatory strategy through litigation support and expert testimony, including matters involving compensation benchmarking, information‑sharing, non‑compete and no‑poach restrictions, and evolving compliance risks.

CRA’s experts bring their extensive experience using workforce, applicant flow, and external labor market data to define and model labor markets, including geographic scope, labor supply, and worker mobility. We differentiate our analyses between competitive labor markets and situations in which unions, trade organizations, or other coordinating institutions shape market conditions from the outset, potentially limiting competition. We evaluate whether observed employment outcomes reflect competitive behavior, structural constraints, or alleged anticompetitive conduct, producing economically rigorous, defensible evidence for regulators and courts. Our work is grounded in decades of experience across employment litigation, pay equity, and labor economics matters.