OpenAI agrees $3.2 million settlement over U.S. worker hiring discrimination allegations

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OpenAI hiring settlement

Highlights

OpenAI and Statsig Inc. settle U.S. Department of Justice allegations over hiring discrimination by paying $1.2 million in penalties and establishing a $2 million back-pay fund.
Settlement mandates OpenAI to publicize PERM roles online, accept electronic applications, train staff on anti-discrimination, and comply with monitoring and reporting requirements.
Fewer than ten PERM positions triggered the $3.2 million settlement, reflecting heightened enforcement since the Protecting U.S. Workers Initiative's re-launch in 2025.

Settlement terms and hiring practice changes

As reported by U.S. Department of Justice, the department’s Civil Rights Division says OpenAI OpCo LLC and subsidiary Statsig Inc. settle allegations that they violated the Immigration and Nationality Act by favoring workers with temporary employment visas over U.S. workers during recruitment tied to the Permanent Labor Certification, or PERM, process.

The settlement requires OpenAI to pay $1.2 million in civil penalties to the United States and create a $2 million back-pay fund for affected workers. The agreement also requires the company to post PERM-related roles on its public careers website, accept electronic applications, train staff on anti-discrimination rules, revise employment policies, and comply with departmental monitoring and reporting requirements.

Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon says it is illegal to discriminate against U.S. workers by preferring temporary visa holders for jobs, adding that the settlement is intended to remedy harm and change recruitment practices for sought-after technology roles.

Enforcement focus on the PERM program

The department says its investigation finds OpenAI did not advertise jobs tied to the PERM program on its external job website even though that was its normal practice for other positions. It also says the company required paper applications by mail for those roles while allowing electronic applications for other jobs, and used other methods that discouraged applicants, including late-night radio advertisements.

While fewer than ten PERM positions are at issue, the department says the settlement size reflects the harm caused when U.S. workers are shut out of applying for lucrative technology jobs. Under the PERM program, employers may sponsor workers for permanent resident status if they conduct good-faith recruitment and cannot find qualified U.S. workers, but they cannot discriminate against U.S. workers based on citizenship status during that process.

The resolution is the 13th settlement since the department re-launched its Protecting U.S. Workers Initiative in 2025. The initiative targets citizenship status discrimination in favor of workers with employment visas, and the department says it continues seeking the maximum penalties allowed by law, along with back pay and mandatory employer training where appropriate.

In our earlier article on New Jersey’s antitrust lawsuit against Amazon’s delivery network model, we explained the state’s claims that Amazon’s control over third-party contractors suppresses driver wages and limits competition for labor. We also outlined how the complaint frames Amazon as holding monopsony power in last-mile delivery labor markets, intensifying regulatory attention on outsourced workforce structures in U.S. logistics.

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