[ryanobjc]

Uh, goods are not just things companies produce, but also things they consume. Therefore it could also include employees.

Also, if you have a look at the class action filing, the mechanism of action is quite clear.

To lay it out, the way that salaries are set is for any given title (eg: Software Engineer I), there is a pay range. Hiring managers do not have the general permission to go outside the pay band. Under the interests of fairness, these pay bands are adhered to fairly strictly.

So depressing the wages of even a sub-section of the employee pool helps keep the pay band down.

While you may deem this a mere 'theory', there is evidence of it's affects. Specifically that Google was forced to give 10% raises to their entire employee when Facebook would not accede to a cold-call prohibition.

Your final sentence is not very complementary to your fellow engineers - often times engineers are focused on the problem and unaware of their place in the market. To call them lazy and apathetic is pretty mean spirited.