I commented at one time but believe that it only went to the original author. Forgive this if it already made it to the list...
The HTML Writers Guild (hwg.org)makes a somewhat big deal about pricing discussions on their message boards. They devote an entire FAQ to the subject. The following are two key items: ------Start HWG Clip ----------------------------------- Is it illegal to discuss pricing? The short answer: YES (at least in the U.S. where many of our members are). The U.S. law specifically makes discussion of pricing between competitors (all or some) a federal offense. According to either Marshall Kragen or Lewis Rose (both practicing lawyers), several brokers in DC were successfully prosecuted for simply discussing an increase of fees at a dinner meeting. When, where, or how doesn't matter. Any discussion of pricing by a group of people within the same industry is illegal in the U.S. The feds call it price fixing. For additional information on the legal aspects of price fixing, please visit the following locations: Antitrust Policy United States DOJ - Antitrust Division Table of Contents Doesn't freedom of speech allow me the freedom to say anything I want? Short answer: NO Use of the Guild's mailing lists is a privilege, not a right; in return for this privilege, you are asked to follow a few simple rules. The "freedom of speech" guarenteed by the U.S. Constitution only protects you from governmental intervention in your right to express yourself -- it doesn't give you free reign to use computer resources against the wishes of their owner. Our lawyer friends have kindly (and in self-survival) pointed out that the Federal Law system in the U.S. and Canada consider pricing discussions by professional organizations to be price fixing which is a federal offense. This "consideration" position has been successfully proven in court. Some of you have argued that other guilds and unions publish price guidelines based upon the stated prices charged by members. Guides are not discussions. Those guides have all company specific information stripped from them, every service has a range of prices associated with it, the prices are compiled and the contributors have become anonymous to the process. How the guide is used is up to the individual reader. What the HTML Writers Guild has forbid is discussion of prices. ------End clip Regards, Neil -----Original Message----- From: doug-ws [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Monday, November 19, 2001 1:02 PM To: CF-Jobs Subject: Re: Hourly Wages? and freedom of speech Thanks to the methods that present the discussion of conspiracy and anti-trust, etc., it is rather simplistic to say that those laws apply to independent contractors. In order to do a reality check, there is no violations of any laws to conduct and publish wage and salary surveys, no matter the methodology. A CF or web developer is not a legally mandated professional association vis a vis the legal fraternity, or CPA, which have licensining requirements and legal mandates requiring their employment. Because you designate a web developer, or any programmer for that matter as a professional, you are merely recognizing him/her as principally employed in that arena. not as an independent entity such as a CPA firm. The Federal Government regularly collects and publishes what they refer to as "prevailing wages" for just about every type of employment, as well as allowable profit margins by those who hire them. Compliance with the "prevailing wage" does not an anti-trust" violation make. The developer is free to charge whatever the traffic will bear, and there are multitudes of developers who have "made the grade" so to speak, that command very high prices. The same is true in the Legal field, whereas some lawyers bill at $40.00 per hour, and some bill at $500..00 per hour. The fastest way for a contractor to reduce his/her workload is to raise prices. On the other hand as skill levels increase, a higher per-hour price is justified due to productivity increases. As an example a particular worker can produce a project in 80 hours, where a more experienced one can complete the project in 40. Why is the latter not worth double the hourly rate as the former? Should the former try to charge the same rate as the latter, then the market will start to shut them out. Competition should and will force a price/productivity balance. There also, according to local legal beagles, no violations when professional associations conduct salary surveys among themselves, and individual members using the results as a guideline for their own work. An informal (or even formal) discussion of billing rates between a group of professionals should be considered as a salary survey, not price fixing. All of you have seen published salary surveys and should readily note that only a very few of those surveyed even respond. The reasons for not responding are, I am sure, many and varied, from laziness, disinterest, to fear of some ambiguous "law." For that reason the resulting statistics should always be taken with a grain of salt. In my opinion, no one should be afraid to respond as accurately as possible to a pertinent survey. In conclusion, I cannot see where "Freedom of Speech" or "Anti-Trust" can every apply to this scenario. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Get the mailserver that powers this list at http://www.coolfusion.com ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ To Unsubscribe visit http://www.houseoffusion.com/index.cfm?sidebar=lists&body=lists/cf_jobs or send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with 'unsubscribe' in the body.
