[Discombulator]

On the other hand, employers are also barred from colluding to keep wages artificially low, which arguably would be considered a “negotiation strategy” if one follows your interpretation.

I agree though that employers have naturally more negotiation power in the vast majority of cases.

[eesmith]

You'll notice that when Adobe, Apple Inc., Google, Intel, Intuit, Pixar, Lucasfilm and eBay colluded for years to keep wages artificially low, their final penalty was far less than they saved in costs, and none of the corporate people involved faced jail time for their illegal actions.

In other words, that collusion was profitable for those companies and for upper management like Eric Schmidt who participated but face no real ostracism for their illegal actions.

That law has no real teeth.

Compare that to, say, UC filing charges against UAW Local 2865 following wildcat strikes at UCSC claiming that UAW Local 2865 didn't do enough to prevent the strike UAW Local 2865 didn't authorize in the first place.