Via costar.com
The AI giant will pay civil penalties and establish a back-pay fund after the DOJ accused it of favoring visa holders over American workers in hiring practices.
OpenAI OpCo LLC and its subsidiary Statsig Inc. have reached a settlement with the US Department of Justice over allegations that the companies discriminated against American workers during hiring. The total financial resolution comes to $3.2 million.
The DOJ’s Civil Rights Division alleged that OpenAI’s units gave preferential treatment to temporary visa holders in recruitment processes tied to the Permanent Labor Certification program, known as PERM. That program is designed to allow employers to sponsor foreign workers for green cards, but companies are supposed to genuinely test the US labor market first, not just go through the motions.
What the settlement looks like #
The deal breaks down into two chunks. OpenAI will pay $1.2 million in civil penalties to the government. On top of that, the company will establish a $2 million back-pay fund for US workers who were affected by the alleged discrimination.
The settlement also mandates changes to OpenAI’s recruitment practices going forward. The company will need to ensure that its hiring processes for PERM-related positions provide fair opportunities to US workers. Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon framed the resolution as both corrective and preventive, emphasizing that the agreement aims to rectify harm while forcing structural changes.
The violations fall under the anti-discrimination provisions of the Immigration and Nationality Act, which prohibits employers from discriminating based on citizenship status or national origin during hiring.
A pattern across Big Tech #
OpenAI isn’t the first major tech company to find itself on the wrong side of the DOJ’s immigration discrimination enforcement. Apple previously reached a $25 million settlement over similar allegations, making it one of the largest resolutions in this category.
The pattern is familiar. Tech companies use the PERM process to sponsor foreign workers, but the DOJ has repeatedly found that some firms treat the required domestic recruitment steps as a formality rather than a genuine effort. The DOJ’s position is that OpenAI’s units did exactly that.
The $3.2 million total is notable as one of the larger recent resolutions from the DOJ in this domain, though it still pales compared to Apple’s $25 million agreement.
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