Workers In The Tech No-Poaching Case Will Probably Get Around $4,000 Each

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Steve JobsA three-year-old class action lawsuit will likely leave four major tech companies dishing out an average of $4,000 to almost 60,000 employees, the San Jose Mercury News reports.

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Apple, Google, Intel, and Adobe Systems employees will receive the compensation after investigators found these four companies conspiring not to steal employees from one another by offering higher pay.

This $240 million is only a part of the settlement. Another $81 million will go to the workers' lawyers, and slightly more than a million will cover the tech companies' expenses. The San Jose Mercury News reports the total settlement comes to $324.5 million.

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Three other Silicon Valley companies - Intuit Inc., Pixar Animation, and Lucasfilm - were also named in the lawsuit, but have reached a separate settlement already approved by a U.S. District Judge. The settlement involving the remaining four companies will be heard in federal court on June 19, the San Jose Mercury News said.

Somehow $324.5 million is on the low end of what this settlement could have been. Earlier in the case, class-action attorneys sought $3 billion. And because the case involved antitrust violations this could have tripled to $9 billion. Employees were seeking compensation approaching $90,000 according to AppleInsider, well into the range of a year's salary for a computer scientist or software engineer.

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The lawsuit portrayed Apple and Google as leaders of the illegal activity, though it is still not known how the $324.5 million will be divided among the four companies. In 2013 Apple, Google, Intel, and Adobe combined to rake in $283 billion in revenue.