The Justice Department said OpenAI and one of its subsidiaries discriminated against US workers by unfairly favoring workers with temporary visa status during the hiring process.
On Tuesday, the Justice Department announced that OpenAI and Statsig, a subsidiary software development company based in Bellevue, Washington, would pay $3.2 million to settle the allegations.
"It is illegal to discriminate against U.S. workers by preferring temporary visa holders for jobs," Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon said in a statement. "This substantial settlement ensures that OpenAI redresses harm and changes its recruitment practices so that U.S. workers receive a fair opportunity for highly sought-after technology positions."
OpenAI said it disagreed with the DOJ's findings, but settled the matter so it could move forward with a program to support employees "requiring immigration support."
"OpenAI's mission is to ensure that AGI benefits all of humanity," an OpenAI spokesperson said in a statement. "Fulfilling that mission and maintaining America's leadership in AI requires attracting and retaining the best talent from the United States and around the world.
"While we disagree with the DOJ's findings, we reached this agreement to resolve the matter and move forward with our PERM program, which is critical for employees and candidates requiring immigration support."
The Justice Department said it found "reasonable cause" to believe that both companies made it more difficult for US workers to apply for positions they hoped to fill with foreign workers through Permanent Labor Certification, a process known as PERM.
The Trump administration has sought to crack down on companies it has said are abusing the visa system. The PERM program allows companies to sponsor temporary visa holders for permanent status, but only if they cannot find US workers for the job following a good-faith recruitment effort.
The DOJ said OpenAI and Statsig failed to take several steps critical to the PERM process, including failing to post some jobs on external sites and not advertising the positions on the radio late at night. OpenAI also required applicants for jobs it hoped to fill via PERM recruitment to mail in paper applications, even though it usually allowed electronic applications for other positions, the DOJ said.
In total, the Justice Department said, while there were fewer than 10 positions at issue across both OpenAI and Statsig, "the resolution amount reflects the harm to US workers when they are shut out of applying for lucrative technology jobs."
Of the $3.2 million settlement, OpenAI will pay $1.2 million in civil penalties. The other $2 million is being set aside to establish a fund "to compensate victims of the companies' discriminatory practices."