Federal officials have been scrutinizing

Federal officials have been scrutinizing Reporting from San Francisco — The Justice Department has reached an agreement with six major Silicon Valley companies to settle charges they colluded to keep a lid on wages by agreeing not to poach employees from one another.

The proposed settlement, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, bars Google Inc., Apple Inc., Intel Corp., Adobe Systems Inc., Intuit Inc. and Walt Disney Co.'s Pixar Animation Studios from pledging not to "cold call" one another's employees as part of partnership agreements.

Federal officials have been scrutinizing such agreements for more however than a year, concerned that they restrained competition for skilled workers and kept an artificial cap on wages by avoiding expensive bidding wars.